New Hampshire Democrats missed a deadline set by the national party to maintain their status as an early presidential primary in 2024, the second major shakeup to the election calendar since the Iowa caucuses lost their top slot in December.
(Bloomberg) — New Hampshire Democrats missed a deadline set by the national party to maintain their status as an early presidential primary in 2024, the second major shakeup to the election calendar since the Iowa caucuses lost their top slot in December.
In a letter sent Thursday to the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, state party Chair Ray Buckley said that demands to move the date of the primary and expand access to early voting by Jan. 5 could not be met.
In the letter, Buckley pointed out that Governor Chris Sununu as well as the secretary of state and leaders of both chambers of the Legislature, all Republicans, refused to make the changes.
Buckley added that the DNC’s requirements amounted to a “seemingly deliberate poison pill” against the state’s long-vaunted first-in-the-nation primary. “Put simply: the DNC’s waiver requirement is unrealistic and unattainable, as the New Hampshire Democratic Party cannot dictate to the Republican governor and state legislative leaders what to do,” he wrote.
In December, the Rules and Bylaws Committee voted to put South Carolina first on the nominating calendar, replacing Iowa, and gave New Hampshire a deadline to make changes, after President Joe Biden called for more diverse states to lead off the nominating contest.
Neither Iowa nor New Hampshire have large populations of minority voters. Biden endorsed the Iowa decision, saying that the party “must ensure that voters of color have a voice.”
Under DNC rules, any state that tries to buck the order will have its number of delegates cut in half, while any presidential candidate on the ballot in that state would be barred from receiving its delegates at the convention.
In the letter, Buckley requested that the Rules and Bylaws Committee give New Hampshire a waiver from those penalties.
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