Columbia, SC – three years before 2028, the contours of the next presidential race already become clearer, with large fields of Potential primary candidates In both parties already make early movements.
But a great thing is not very clear for the Democrats: what a state will vote first when the primaries begin.
The election of 2024 was the first in almost two decades which saw a major change at the top of the primary democratic calendar, by starting the Iowa – the first long -standing caucus of the nation – and sliding the primary of the South Carolina in the foreground, questioning the traditional main role of the New Hampshire.
The movements came in the middle of the disadvantage of the disorderly caucus of the Democrats of Iowa and the recognition of the role that black voters play in the Democratic Party – and with a strong influence on the party of the president of the time, Joe Biden, whose primary victory in South Carolina in 2020 put it on the way to the White House.
In South Carolina, which was exploited to accommodate the first primary sanctioned by Democrats for the first time in 2024, state Democrats are categorical that they will be online on the main calendar in 2028.
“Oh yes, we are first,” said the president of the Democratic Party of Southern Carolina, Christal Spain, at NBC News at the party’s headquarters in Columbia earlier this month. She added: “South Carolina is the first. This means that the South is the first. So we will continue to fight for it. ”
However, national democrats and party leaders from other states have reported that they were open to considering changes in the main calendar of the party.
In February, Shortly after being elected to her postThe president of the National Democratic Committee, Ken Martin, denounced if he thought that the main calendar should change, telling journalists that basic members would be those who should decide to change the main schedule.
“If they do, my commitment … is that it is open and transparent in terms of processes,” said Martin.
He added that if the calendar should change, it would support a “rigorous”, “effective” and “just” calendar.
“He must honor the traditions and diversity of our party while testing our candidate in a way that helps us win,” he added.
The DNC echoes Martin’s comments in February in a statement to NBC News, while reporting with more certainty that the party was going to take a look at the change of the calendar.
“The DNC undertakes to manage a fair, transparent and rigorous process for the primary calendar of 2028. All states will have the opportunity to participate,” said DNC Deputy Director of the DNC, Abhi Rahman, in a press release.
Until now, no state has officially advanced with an attempt to resume the status of the first in South Carolina on the Democratic Presidential Calendar of South Carolina.
This is partly because the primary is still so far away, and any change in the calendar will be launched by the DNC rules and statutes committee, which will probably not examine this problem for at least a year.
Jaime Harrison, former president of the DNC and the Democratic Party of South Carolina, argued that her state deserves the first projector in the nation in an open race, after Biden presented himself to the re -election in 2024.
“I think that southern Carolina must be shot on an open main situation where it is the first in the country,” Harrison told NBC News in Columbia.
Spain, the current president of the Democratic Party of Southern Carolina, described its state as a “proven test field” with a “vast painting” of democratic voters.
“You know, rural voters, urban voters, students, black voters, older voters, retirees. We have it all, and we are a small state “with” cheap media markets “to buy television advertisements, she said.
But the Iowa and the Democrats of New Hampshire reported that they will not let the Palmetto State keep its position without fighting. Many states have campaigned for the first slots asked to go forward calendar.
In a press release, the president of the Iowa Democratic Party Rita Hart told NBC News that, although the party is currently focusing on the Senate and State Governor competitions next year, “I expect to have difficult and direct conversations with the DNC concerning our Iowa caucus and the serious concerns surrounding the Bide 2024.”
“National Democrats allow Trump to go ahead in the 2024 campaign by excluding Iowa,” added Hart.
The president of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, Raymond Buckley, was more disdainful of the DNC calendar changes. He noted a law of the state which dictates that the New Hampshire must hold the primaries of the first to the nation a week before any primary party which followed elsewhere.
“The planning and implementation of primary are not an event in the Democratic Party,” Buckley told NBC News.
In 2024, the New Hampshire put the new calendar of the National Democratic Party, holding its primary before the South Carolina despite the threats of the DNC that the State would lose the delegates to the Democratic Convention.
Biden won the New Hampshire primary in January As a writing candidate After refusing to put his name on the ballot in the non -sanctioned non -partisan primary. The DNC finally voted for Authorize the New Hampshire to send its Democrats delegates to the Chicago Convention.
Buckley added that this electoral cycle: “We will work with other states to assemble a calendar that certainly respects diversity, respects the law of the New Hampshire and respects the fact that the essential is that we must win the White House in 2028.”
Presidential races in 2028, including Democratic senators, governors and former officials of the Biden administration, seem to recognize in their early journey that a combination of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina will direct the party’s appointment process in three years.
Already, four Democratic governors – Wes Moore from Maryland, Tim Walz from Minnesota, Andy Beshear from Kentucky and Gavin Newsom from California – have visited South Carolina this year for events with voters. Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois and Senator Amy Klobuchar du Minnesota attended events in New Hampshire in 2025. And the former transport secretary Pete Buttigieg attended an Iowa town hall, while Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona plans to visit next month.
However, the voters and democratic officials of South Carolina plan to fight to stay first.
“I’m going to fight with everything I have to make sure that, at least for this 2028 cycle, that he remains the first in the country,” said Harrison.
