President Joe Biden’s name will not be on the New Hampshire Democratic primary ballot after state party officials refused to go along with new rules that put South Carolina’s primary election before theirs, according to Reuters.
The Democratic Party had moved to eliminate Iowa and New Hampshire as the states holding the first two election nominating contests in favor of South Carolina, the place where Biden won his first primary race in the 2020 election.
Biden’s campaign chair, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, said in a letter to New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley that Biden would not be submitting a declaration of candidacy for the New Hampshire primary, The Associated Press reported.
The deadline to submit the declaration is Friday.
According to New Hampshire law, the state must hold its primary election before any other state.
It was Biden who urged the Democratic National Committee to shake up the order of the 2024 primary, the AP reported.
In part, the president said, “We must ensure that voters of color have a voice in choosing our nominee much earlier in the process and throughout the entire early window.”
The Democratic National Committee voted for the change in December that will put South Carolina as the first state to hold a Democratic primary. The party said at the time that moving South Carolina to first in line will hopefully allow Black and other minority voters more of a voice in the nominating process.
The DNC approved a new 2024 primary calendar in February, beginning with South Carolina’s primary on Feb. 3, then New Hampshire’s and Nevada’s primaries on Feb. 6.
Chavez Rodriguez said Biden looks forward to having his name on New Hampshire’s general election ballot.
“The president looks forward to having his name on New Hampshire’s general election ballot as the nominee of the Democratic Party after officially securing the nomination at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, where he will tirelessly campaign to earn every single vote in the Granite State next November,” Chavez Rodriguez wrote.
Below is a list of the Democratic primaries and caucuses:
(Note: The list is subject to change.)
- January 15: Iowa caucuses to be held; results to be released on March 5
- February 3: South Carolina
- February 6: Nevada
- February 6 (tentative): New Hampshire
- February 27: Michigan
- March 5: Super Tuesday (Alabama, Arkansas, American Samoa, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia)
- March 12: Democrats Abroad, Georgia, Mississippi, and Washington primaries, and Northern Mariana Islands caucuses
- March 19: Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio
- March 23: Louisiana and Missouri
- April 2: Delaware, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Wisconsin
- April 6: Alaska, Hawaii, and North Dakota
- April 13: Wyoming county caucuses
- April 23: Pennsylvania
- April 28: Puerto Rico
- May 7: Indiana
- May 14: Maryland, Nebraska and West Virginia
- May 21: Kentucky and Oregon
- May 23: Idaho county caucuses
- June 4: District of Columbia, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota
- June 8: Guam and United States Virgin Islands caucuses
Statement from New Hampshire Secretary of State David M. Scanlan:
The decision of President Biden to shun the voters of the New Hampshire "First-in-the-Nation" Presidential Primary is not unexpected but still disappointing.
Despite all the rhetoric about diversity in the presidential nominating process, this issue is really about who determines the eventual nominee - the national political party or the voters.
New Hampshire remains the one place where ANY United States citizen who is qualified to run for president can attempt to make it happen. Ballot access is extremely easy, and a candidate does not need high name recognition or wealth to run a campaign here. For over 100 years, New Hampshire has represented the purest form of democracy in the presidential nominating process, and we will fight to protect it.
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