CONCORD, NH – “Dead on the go.”
Those are the words Republican Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire uses to describe a plan initially approved by the Democratic National Committee to overhaul the top of the 2024 presidential candidate calendar.
“To think that the Democratic National Committee is going to dictate our laws and our tried-and-true process is an outlandish demand,” Sununu, a century-old DNC chair in New Hampshire, told Fox News this week. when asked about ‘rovi. Held the first primary in the White House race — changing state laws to accommodate the proposed new calendar.
President Biden’s proposal, which was announced last week and quickly cleared the first hurdle after being overwhelmingly approved by the DNC’s Rules and Legislation Committee last Friday, puts South Carolina in the lead on the Democratic primary schedule on February 3. brought to the ring. , 2024, New Hampshire and Nevada will hold primaries three days later, followed by Georgia and Michigan.
DEMOCRATS PUSH THEIR PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION SCHEDULE
A sign stands in front of the state capitol in New Hampshire on December 7, 2022 in Concord, NH, marking the century-old tradition of holding the nation’s first presidential primary in a race for the White House.
(Fox News)
It’s a move to make the party’s leadership selection more representative, which has become more diverse in recent decades.
Biden’s plan, which the full DNC membership is expected to adopt at its winter meeting in early February, is a dramatic departure from the current schedule, which has seen Iowa and New Hampshire both hold their first two primary contests in half a century. Tables of the Democratic and Republican parties. Over the years, many Democrats have dismissed Iowa and New Hampshire as unrepresentative of the party because they are predominantly white and feature only a few large cities. Nevada and South Carolina — currently the third and fourth ballots on the calendar — are more diverse than Iowa or New Hampshire.
The DNC is giving the five early voting states on its new schedule until early next month to show they are committed to complying with the new national party rules — or they will lose their original spot on the schedule. For New Hampshire, that means repealing a state law protecting its cherished first-state status.
“It’s not happening. It’s not happening at all,” said Republican state Senate President Jeb Bradley. “I think it’s a shame that national Democrats have chosen to destroy the traditions of New Hampshire.”
Bradley pointed to New Hampshire Secretary of State Dave Scanlan, who said he would move up the presidential election date to comply with state law. And in an interview with Fox News, Bradley warned that it could backfire for Democrats at the ballot box in 2024.
GOP sticks to tradition as RNC makes NO CHANGES TO PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION SCHEDULE
“I think the voters of New Hampshire respect our status as first in the country. So the fact that the Democratic National Committee is undermining that — I think that sends a very clear message to independent voters in New Hampshire that ‘we don’t care’ about you,” he said. a longtime lawmaker.
South Carolina, a red state where black voters play a large role in Democratic primaries, gave Biden his first victory in the 2020 nomination race. After disappointing fourth- and fifth-place finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, Biden finished second to Senator Bernie Sanders in the Nevada caucuses and won the South Carolina primary, propelling him to the Democratic nomination and ultimately the White House. .
Then-former Vice President Joe Biden takes a selfie with a supporter after winning the state’s Democratic presidential primary on February 29, 2020, in Columbia, South Carolina.
(Fox News)
Biden has repeatedly said he intends to run for re-election in 2024, and the new calendar proposed by the president and approved by the DNC panel appears to be another sign that he will follow through on those intentions. It would also benefit Biden if he faces any major challenges on the left of his party.
Sununu noted that Biden could run in 2024, arguing that the DNC is “indulging the personal whims of a candidate, Joe Biden is the candidate.”
“They’re letting a candidate decide where to put the first-place election in the nation as a personal political payoff to his supporters in South Carolina. It’s a blatant abuse of the process and the importance of New Hampshire coming out on top.” is shockingly ignorant. And it’s important to have a state that actually knows what it’s doing, gets the vote right, gets the candidates right,” Sununu said.
It’s not just New Hampshire Republicans who are fighting the DNC. So is the state’s GOP congressional delegation and the state party.
Sen. Jean Shaheen, a senior member of the congressional delegation and former governor, said the DNC’s move. “Our selection of the primary date will not be affected: New Hampshire state law dictates that we conduct a ‘first in the nation’ contest. That status remains unchanged because we are bound by state law.”
DEMOCRATS TO CHANGE 2024 NOMINATION CALENDAR AFTER MID-TERM TRADING
And Shaheen added, “We look forward to accepting candidates for the 2024 New Hampshire presidential primary and showing the country that we must continue to entrust our nation with a ‘first in the nation’ primary that delivers timely and reliable results. a process that levels the playing field for all candidates regardless.”
But Sununu, a staunch critic of the state’s Democratic federal delegation, said, “Obviously, they blew it. The Democratic delegation, they’re in charge of the field. Ray Buckley is in charge of the field. Their state committee is man and woman. They’re in charge of the field. .
The DNC’s proposal to change the calendar isn’t unique to New Hampshire.
Iowa Caucuses at the Iowa State Historical Museum, January 15, 2020
(Fox News)
The Republican National Committee voted earlier this year not to make any changes to the slates of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann threatened to move the Republican caucus date in retaliation for the DNC’s move. And Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Ross Wilburn told the DNC, “Our state law requires us to hold a caucus before the last Tuesday in February and before any other election.”
There is already opposition in Georgia, where Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and the GOP-dominated legislature must sign off on moving the date of the state’s Democratic primary.
Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs said earlier this week that Georgia would not change its primary date if it meant holding the Democratic and GOP primaries on different dates.
His boss, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, told CNN in an interview, “I like that Georgia is moving up in the rankings because we continue to have a growing population.” But he said there would need to be strong support from state lawmakers, both Republican and Democratic, before changing the date would be a possibility.