Democrats over the weekend advanced a new plan for their presidential primary calendar, moving South Carolina up to the first spot on Feb. 3, followed by New Hampshire and Nevada on Feb. 6, Georgia on Feb. 13 and Michigan on Feb. 27, NBC News’ Alex Seitz-Wald reports. The plan still needs to be approved by the full Democratic National Committee next year.
South Carolina Democrats were caught off guard when President Joe Biden proposed that the Palmetto State hold the first nominating contest, Seitz-Wald and Natasha Korecki report. They hadn’t actually pushed to go first, but were pleasantly surprised.
Korecki and Jonathan Allen also report that the proposed new order could benefit Vice President Kamala Harris in a potential future bid by prioritizing states with many voters of color.
But displacing New Hampshire from its first-in-the-nation status won’t be easy.
Republicans are also dealing with their own party drama. Politico reports that Harmeet Dhillon, a committeewoman from California, is preparing to run against Ronna McDaniel for Republican National Committee chair. Dillon’s firm represents former President Donald Trump. McDaniel also recently named Dillon as a co-chair of a committee analyzing the party’s performance in the midterms.
And GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin, who just lost a race for New York governor, tweeted that he will announce whether he’s running for RNC chair on Wednesday morning, noting he is waiting until after Tuesday’s Georgia runoff.
Here’s what else is happening in the 2024 campaign:
California Senate: Politico details the “shadow race” to succeed Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., should she decide not to run for re-election in 2024. Potential contenders include Democratic Reps. Katie Porter, Ro Khanna, Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee.
The Senate map: Republicans’ path to the Senate majority in 2024 runs through four red states: Montana, West Virginia, Ohio and Indiana, and Politico has details on potential candidates in each of those states.
Second acts: Republican Don Bolduc, a retired brigadier general who lost the New Hampshire Senate race, announced Monday that he’s running for vice chair of the state GOP, per a press release. Both Kristina Karamo and Matthew DePerno, two Michigan Republicans who lost statewide bids after casting doubt on the 2020 election, are running for state party chair, per the Associated Press.
