New Hampshire announced Wednesday that it will hold its Republican and Democratic presidential primaries on Jan. 23, officially rejecting demands from the Democratic National Committee and President Biden to give up its first-in-the-nation status.
New Hampshire has been the first state to hold a primary election every cycle since 1920 and is required by state law to hold the contest at least a week earlier than any other.
However, the Democratic National Committee approved a new schedule last February under which South Carolina would hold its first primary on February 3, 2024, New Hampshire and Nevada would follow three days later, Georgia would go a week later and Michigan would host its first. primary. primaries two weeks later, on February 27.
The new calendar was created in response to demands from liberal activists for the DNC to hold early voting in states with more diverse populations than Iowa and New Hampshire.
Iowa, which will hold its Republican caucuses on Jan. 15, will continue to hold in-person Democratic caucuses that day to conduct party business but will allow mail-in voting for candidates through March 5, according to a commitment to the National Committee Democrat.
New Hampshire officials are not in such a conciliatory mood.
Biden will not appear on the New Hampshire ballot.EPA
“Using racial diversity as a cudgel in an attempt to reshuffle the presidential nominating schedule is an ugly precedent,” Secretary of State Bill Scanlan told reporters in Concord on Wednesday. “At what point does a state become too old or too rich, too educated or too religious to hold early primaries?”
Biden finished an embarrassing fifth place in the 2020 New Hampshire primary and did not apply to put his name on the ballot this time, in accordance with Democratic National Committee guidelines.
A historical marker displayed outside the House of Representatives in Concord, New Hampshire, on Nov. 15, 2023, describes the history of the state’s first presidential primary in the country. AP
Insurgent challenger Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) plans to campaign heavily in New Hampshire in an attempt to pull off a stunning upset over Biden. In 1968, a strong second-place performance by Sen. Gene McCarthy (D-Minn.) sparked a Democratic battle that led President Lyndon Johnson not to seek reelection.
“What’s at stake is who determines the party’s candidate: the elites in a national party committee controlling the nomination schedule or the voters,” Scanlan said. “New Hampshire believes that voters in each state should decide who they prefer as their candidate for president, not the power brokers in Washington, DC.”
As a result of New Hampshire’s challenge, the Democratic National Committee is likely to strip the state of its 33 delegates to next year’s nominating convention in Chicago.
President Joe Biden, flanked by New Hampshire political officials, walks along the NH 175 bridge over the Pemigewasset River in Woodstock on November 16, 2021.AFP via Getty Images
An Emerson College/WHDH poll released Wednesday found that 44% of likely Democratic primary voters were undecided about who they would support. Of the rest, 27% said they would write in Biden, 15% said they would support Phillips, 10% said they would support self-help author Marianne Williamson and 5% said they would support “someone else.”
“With Biden not officially on the ballot in New Hampshire, Democratic primary voters appear to be confused about which candidate to support and how to vote for them,” said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling.
The poll also found that Biden beat former President Donald Trump in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup in New Hampshire, 47% to 42%. When given a four-vote test that included third-party candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West, Biden leads Trump 40% to 37%, with RFK Jr. garnering 8% support and West 1%.
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