Biden urges Dems to scrap Iowa, elevate South Carolina, Georgia, Michigan in early presidential primaries

President Joe Biden has proposed sweeping changes to the Democratic presidential nominating calendar, upending the current primary lineup to include several states that were key to his 2020 win — and breaking with a half-century of precedent that put Iowa at the front of the line.

The co-chairs of the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws committee, which has been charged with reordering the primaries that lead off Democratic presidential contests, announced the White House’s preferences to DNC members during a private dinner Thursday night.

The moves would dramatically change the path to the presidency for future Democratic candidates. The proposal would see South Carolina leading off the 2024 primaries on Feb. 6, followed by New Hampshire and Nevada jointly holding their contests the next week, on Feb. 13, followed by Georgia on Feb. 20 and then Michigan on Feb. 27, according to a person who attended the meeting.

South Carolina gave Biden his critical first primary win on his way to the Democratic nomination in 2020, and Georgia and Michigan gave him crucial general election victories as well, in addition to primary wins.

"We must ensure that voters of color have a voice in choosing our nominee much earlier in the process and throughout the entire early window," Biden wrote in a letter to DNC members. "As I said in February 2020, you cannot be the Democratic nominee and win a general election unless you have overwhelming support from voters of color — and that includes Black, Brown and Asian American & Pacific Islander voters."

The first four presidential nominating states for Democrats have been Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina since 2008. Iowa, which has led off the first-in-the-nation caucuses since the 1970s, will be wiped out of the early-state process altogether.

New Hampshire Democrats were apoplectic over Biden's proposal. Statements from Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan called the plan “tremendously disappointing” and “deeply misguided,” respectively. And New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley made clear that they still planned to host their primary first, a tradition enshrined in the state’s law.

“This news is obviously disappointing, but we will be holding our primary first,” Buckley said in a statement.

This isn’t the first time New Hampshire’s status has been threatened. In 2007, several states, including Michigan, tried to squeeze New Hampshire out of its first-in-the-nation primary position by moving their own dates up, but New Hampshire successfully fought them off.

And Democrats believe there could be a repeat: “You saw 2007, so be ready,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell, who led the charge alongside the late Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) to try to move the state up ahead of the 2008 Democratic presidential primary. “I lived it, so I know it.”

The White House proposal caps off months of intense public and private lobbying on the part of a half-dozen states seeking to jump into — or leapfrog over other states — in the early window. The DNC reopened the long-stable nominating process last spring, asking states to apply or reapply for the coveted status. The DNC came under pressure from leaders inside and outside to diversify the slate of states, criticizing Iowa and New Hampshire for their predominately white populations, which do not reflect the base of the Democratic Party.

But not all of the lobbying efforts were successful. Minnesota DFL Chair Ken Martin conceded his state's effort to enter the early window at the dinner Thursday night, according to a second person in the room.

In recent days, some DNC members were frustrated by the lack of guidance from the White House about the calendar. Before the proposal dropped, many said that, should Biden indicate his preferences, they would honor the direction from the leader of the party. The DNC rules committee is scheduled for two days of public meetings on Friday and Saturday, where the feasibility of the White House’s proposal will likely be on the agenda. The committee must ratify the proposal before it will go to a full DNC vote in early 2023.

Such dramatic changes will inevitably put the DNC in a showdown with Republicans, who voted last spring to affirm their current line up of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada for 2024. It’s also unclear how some states might change the date of their primary — particularly Georgia, since Republicans control the state legislature and the governorship there.

But Michigan appears to be on a glide path to join the early window, since Democrats flipped both chambers of the state legislature there and retained the governorship last month.

Earlier this week, Biden signaled to Michigan Democrats during his trip to the state this week that he’d bless their bid to hold their primary in the early-state window in the future, according to a senior Michigan Democrat. Separately, White House aides informed state officials of their recommendation to the Democratic National Committee, according to senior party leaders. Michigan and Minnesota were seen as the leading contenders to replace Iowa in the early lineup, after years in which Iowa's caucuses have served as the first contest of presidential campaigns. But Michigan's status as a general election battleground, as well as President Joe Biden's own connection to the state and its powerful labor unions, won out.