The Democratic Party took a small step toward setting its 2028 presidential primary calendar, telling a dozen state parties they can formally present bids to hold nominating contests at the beginning of the process.
Party leaders notified the 12 states during a party meeting in Puerto Rico on Saturday, with traditional early states such as South Carolina, Iowa and New Hampshire looking to stay at the front of the line while swing states including Georgia and North Carolina look to skip ahead.
Democrats will ultimately pick one state from each of the party’s four regions to hold an early nominating contest ahead of Super Tuesday, the March date that sets the stage for the rest of the primary campaign. The party may also choose a fifth state from any region to join that early window as well.
Both the Democratic and Republican parties are protective of those early slots on the presidential nominating calendar because of the outsize influence those states have on the process, helping to shape the strategies and narratives surrounding the all-important primary.
In the wake of a volatile 2020 primary calendar, a contentious battle over the 2024 schedule and a disappointing presidential election for Democrats, key party leaders, including national party Chair Ken Martin, have highlighted the importance of refreshing the nominating calendar.
Twelve states submitted applications for the party to consider earlier this month, and during Saturday’s meeting, the Democratic National Committee’s rules and bylaws panel voted to advance all of those applications to its next round.
The states vying for the Eastern region’s early slot include New Hampshire, which has held one of the party’s earliest contests for decades, and Delaware, the home of former President Joe Biden.
The Midwest region’s candidates include two usual suspects: Iowa, which had long held the first nominating contest in the country until a bungled 2020 Democratic caucus cost the party clout and helped to jeopardize its standing as an early nominating state, and Michigan, which was granted the right to hold an early state primary in 2024, when the Democratic nomination wasn’t seriously contested. Illinois, the home of former President Barack Obama, also applied for the early window.
The Southern region is even more crowded. South Carolina, another historic early primary state, which has traditionally tested candidates’ mettle with Black voters, is applying again. But so is Georgia, which has become one of the most hotly contested battleground states in recent years, plus North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
Rounding out the list, in the Western region, are the Democratic parties from Nevada, another historic early nominating state with a significant Latino population, and New Mexico, a new entrant.
The next step for these states is a formal presentation in front of the party, whose members will hash out the schedule in the coming months.
Looming over a handful of state party applications is the fact that some would need support from Republicans to legally change certain primary dates. Those states include Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee. While it’s possible Republican lawmakers would green-light a change if they think it could benefit the state by drawing additional attention during the nominating calendar, it’s also possible those lawmakers dig in their heels.
While Democrats and Republicans had agreed on a shared early nominating calendar for decades, their schedules have fallen out of alignment in recent years. While Republicans continue to embrace the historic roles of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina in their early window, Democrats say they want to consider different options they believe will better reflect party values and sharpen an eventual presidential nominee.
In a statement released shortly after the meeting closed, rules and bylaws committee co-chairs Minyon Moore and James Roosevelt Jr. said the meeting was “another crucial step forward to create a nominating calendar that delivers a strong, battle-tested Democratic nominee to take back the White House in 2028.”
Party leaders have said key dynamics they’ll consider when setting the schedule include ensuring candidates run through a rigorous slate that tests them with key voting blocs while keeping the calendar practical and relying on states that have proved they can efficiently run a fair nominating contest.
The frayed relationship between the two parties was clear during the rules and bylaws meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Saturday. It was held days after the FBI seized ballots and records related to the 2020 election in Georgia, and amid the national reckoning over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown after federal agents killed two people in Minnesota this month.
Daniele Monroe-Moreno, the chair of Nevada’s Democratic Party, warned state parties that while they should have a “plan in place to protect their voter files,” they should not disclose the full details of the plan because “there are also Republicans watching us right now, and when the states come before us to give their presentation, if they give those details, they’re giving the playbook to the enemy.”
Cristóbal Alex, a committee member from Washington, D.C., and one of the founders of the Latino Victory Project, invoked the Trump administration’s “horrifying” deportation policies during the brief discussion about Iowa’s application.
“We know what’s at stake for the country in this next presidential election, and my question for Iowa and all the states is: How do we ensure our communities that MAGA has declared war on are the very communities that have their voices heard loud and clear, so that our next president fully understands those communities and represents those communities?” he asked.
