President Joe Biden could be forced to sacrifice the first Democratic primary in New Hampshire next year after the state decided to keep its original primary order despite the Democratic Party's rearrangement of the order.
The Democratic National Committee moved New Hampshire from its coveted first slot in the primaries down to a joint second slot with Nevada. It also moved Iowa out of the first round of primaries. Biden finished fifth in New Hampshire in 2020, and he finished fourth in Iowa.
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South Carolina, where Biden finished first, was moved to the first slot.
“We still intend to have a presidential primary that will be first in the nation,” New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan told NBC News. “Whether the president campaigns here or not is up to him. It’s up to him whether he’s going to place his name on the ballot or not. If he chooses not to place his name on the ballot, I’m sure there will be some New Hampshire Democratic voters who will write his name in.”
New Hampshire has a state law that dates back to the 1970s and requires the state to go first in the presidential primaries by one week.
If Biden does forgo New Hampshire, it could give a victory to one of his challengers: author Marianne Williamson or anti-vaccine activist Robert Kennedy Jr. — both of whom have been campaigning in the state recently. It also opens a window for other Democratic 2024 hopefuls, including big-name Democrats who could enter the race in the future.
The Democratic National Committee ratified the new election calendar in February at the president's urging. The ratification bans candidates from campaigning or placing their names on the ballots in states that do not obey the new order. But Williamson and Kennedy have both indicated that they would accept the nonspecific punishment from the DNC.
The results of both Iowa and New Hampshire are expected to be shrugged off by the Biden administration and are not expected to affect Biden's total delegate count negatively.
"Then they can say, ‘Well, of course we didn’t win New Hampshire. We didn’t expect him to, and no one expected him to; we didn’t even compete,’” an unnamed New Hampshire Democrat with experience in the state’s primary said.
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New Hampshire's largest union announced that it was not endorsing Biden on Tuesday, claiming, "New Hampshire voters deserve a competitive Democratic Primary."
No date for the Democratic primary has been set, but the Republican primary is scheduled for Feb. 13, 2024. The presidential election will be held on Nov. 5, 2024.