On Friday, the Democrats reshuffled the presidential primary timetable, rewarding South Carolina by shifting the state’s voting to February 3 and demoting Iowa’s caucus to second place.
After five decades, the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) rulemaking arm decided on Friday that South Carolina will replace Iowa as the first state on the presidential nomination calendar.
President Joe Biden supported the Democrats’ unprecedented action when the party encountered several technological difficulties in 2020. Biden stated his opposition to caucuses in a letter he sent out last week, arguing that they are “restrictive” to hourly employees and force voters to make their decisions in front of others. In addition, he thinks the party should put more effort into places with a sizable black population.
The committee settled on February 3 for the South Carolina primary and 4 for the Nevada and New Hampshire primaries. Both Georgia and Michigan were selected the following week.
According to the AP’s report:
This is a significant change from the present timetable, which has seen Iowa host the first-in-the-nation caucuses since 1972 and New Hampshire host the first-in-the-nation primary since 1920. Since the 2008 presidential election, when Democrats significantly altered their primary calendar, Nevada and South Carolina are the following states in line.
If Biden runs for reelection in 2024, the new timeline may be moot, but it has the potential to radically alter the Democratic presidential nominating process in subsequent years. White House personnel have started talking about hiring for the president’s expected reelection campaign, even though he hasn’t officially decided to run again.
On Friday, just two states’ representatives on the committee voiced opposition to the proposal: Iowa and New Hampshire. Committee members have stated that they will abide by the laws of their home state rather than the decisions of the DNC.
Finally, the DNC will have to vote on the committee’s recommendations sometime early in the new year. However, the vote is expected to be in line with the rulemaking committee’s recommendations. Moreover, the DNC intends to review the primary calendar before 2028, so further alterations may occur.
Iowa will remain the first state for Republicans in 2024 since the Republican National Committee has already made that decision.