A handful of state Democratic parties are making bids to hold early 2028 primaries, as the national party gets set to remake its nominating calendar ahead of the next presidential election.
The New Hampshire, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, New Mexico, Virginia and Delaware state parties confirmed to NBC News that they submitted applications, ahead of Friday's deadline, to hold primaries during the party’s early nominating window in two years. Nevada and South Carolina plan to apply as well, their state party leaders have said, and others may push for a spot in the early window too.
The early nominating windows are coveted slots for the handful of states blessed by the national parties. Voting ahead of Super Tuesday gives them more influencing in picking a party’s presidential nominee, and Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — the states that have historically occupied these slots for both parties in the last few decades — have helped sink, or supercharge, presidential campaigns over the years.
However the Democrats decide to lay out their calendar will affect how the party's presidential hopefuls build out their campaigns and fashion their strategies when they launch campaigns next year.
Friday’s deadline is just an initial step for the Democratic National Committee's effort to rewrite its nominating calendar. The DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee is expected to have a lengthy debate over what schedule would be best for the party.
During a fall meeting outlining the process, the committee specifically called for a "nominating process that reflects the diversity of the Party, gives candidates the opportunity and incentive to meet voters, and exemplifies our passionate belief in American democracy."
"The Rules and Bylaws Committee is committed to running a rigorous, efficient, and fair process that will deliver the strongest presidential nominee for our party. We look forward to continuing that work later this month when the committee begins consideration of state applications to hold their contest in the early window of the 2028 Democratic presidential nominating process," Minyon Moore and Jim Roosevelt, the co-chairs of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee, said in a statement.
After President Joe Biden won the 2020 nomination — limping through the first few contests before a dramatic victory in South Carolina's primary lifted him beyond his rivals — the DNC, with Biden’s backing, moved South Carolina to the front of the line and giving Michigan and Georgia the right to hold their primaries in the early window.
Meanwhile, the committee booted Iowa and New Hampshire out of its official early-state calendar, in the hope of prioritizing more diverse states. (Iowa also saw its clout evaporate after a disastrous 2020 Democratic caucus in which the party's vote-reporting software failed, delaying the official results for days.)
The move sparked significant consternation among Democrats that would have boiled over even more if the party hadn't been planning to coronate Biden without a serious primary challenge.
New Hampshire, which has a state law on the books that requires it to hold the first primary, flouted the national party in 2024 and held a Democratic primary in the early window anyways, coinciding with the high-profile Republican primary there. Biden won that primary with a write-in campaign, since he was not on the ballot because the national party considered it an unsanctioned contest.
And Iowa struck a deal with the national party to hold an in-person caucus in the early window but also allow for mail-in votes, with the results not released until March 2024.
Top Democrats promised an overhaul of the nominating calendar after Biden's loss, as the DNC was searching for a new leader. And state parties have been making their case ever since.
"Michigan is the most diverse battleground state in the country and investments made on the ground early are beneficial to electing a Democratic president in the general election,” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel said in a statement. “Michigan is a perfect candidate to be in the lineup of early nominating contests, and while we don’t need to be first-in-the-nation, it’s crucial that our new national calendar for selecting the next president includes Michigan in an early position.”
Rita Hart, the head of the Iowa Democratic Party, said in a statement the party looks forward to "highlighting the unique flexibility of our party-run caucus process," warning that the move to boot Iowa from the early window was a "mistake" that allowed "Republicans’ attacks go unanswered in Iowa."
"If the Democratic Party wants to start winning big, sustainable majorities again, our candidates need to show they can compete in states like Iowa," she added.
