WASHINGTON — Democrats took a big step Friday toward making South Carolina the first state to hold its presidential primary in the 2028 cycle, potentially handing former Vice President Kamala Harris a big early advantage should she launch a third White House bid.
The Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws panel gave the Palmetto State the nod to go first with 26 votes, followed by Nevada (19 votes) and longtime first-in-the-nation primary state New Hampshire (4 votes).
Friday’s committee vote is expected to be approved next month by the full DNC, formalizing the calendar.
Democratic activists had pushed hard in recent years for more diverse states to go first with their nominating contests rather than predominantly white Iowa and New Hampshire.
Then-President Joe Biden successfully lobbied for South Carolina to lead the calendar in 2024 after his victory there four years earlier propelled him to the Democratic nomination. The predominantly black Democratic primary electorate in that state is expected to favor Harris, the first woman of color to be vice president, should she run again.
“Black voters didn’t just show up for this party in 2020. They saved us,” Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb said in remarks advocating for South Carolina. “They saved our entire country from Donald Trump.”
Other advocates cited a recent Supreme Court decision weakening the 1965 Voting Rights Act as reason to elevate the Southern state’s African-American electorate.
New Hampshire law requires the staging of a primary at least seven days before any other state. In 2024, New Hampshire held a primary 11 days before South Carolina, with Biden declining to appear on the ballot but still winning nearly 64% of the vote via a write-in campaign.
The New Hampshire Democratic Party held its own primary with only Biden as a candidate in April 2024, allowing its delegates to be seated at the national convention in Chicago that August.
“New Hampshire will follow its law and 106-year-old tradition of holding the First-in-the-Nation Presidential Primary,” Secretary of State David M. Scanlan said in a statement.
Without an incumbent or clear front-runner, the states that vote early will still have an outsized role in picking the nominee.
Earlier Friday, the committee picked six states to hold early primaries, with Michigan, New Mexico and Virginia joining the top three vote-getters.
Michigan bested Iowa to be the Midwest’s early state, ending Iowa’s 56-year status as the first nominating contest.
The most recent Iowa Democratic caucuses, held in 2020, descended into chaos and farce after problems with a mobile application used to report precinct-level results caused a three-day delay in determining the winner, future Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
All six states will hold their nominating contests before Super Tuesday, giving each significant influence over who will be the Democrats’ next presidential nominee.
Republicans still need to finalize their calendar but are expected to stick with the traditional early-state lineup, starting with the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.
