Democrats on Friday voted to ditch Iowa for South Carolina as the first state to host the 2024 presidential primary in an effort to amplify the voices of ethnically and geographically diverse voters.
The Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee formally made the decision to deny Iowa its 50-year privilege of kicking off the nomination process. Instead, South Carolina will lead the contest on February 3, followed by Nevada and New Hampshire on February 6, Georgia on February 13 and Michigan on February 27.
The move, in addition to demoting Iowa, would dilute the influence of New Hampshire, traditionally the host of the country’s first presidential primary. Democrats agreed to elevate South Carolina, which handed President Biden his key first primary victory on the path to the Democratic nomination in 2020. Putting South Carolina first on the calendar, displacing the rural and heavily white state of Iowa, was proposed by Democrats as means to better represent communities of color in nominee selection.
“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 rules committee 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 move now goes to the full DNC for final approval. If Biden pursues a second presidential bid, the schedule adjustment may be irrelevant for 2024, since it’s very likely he’ll be the frontrunner given his incumbency. Biden has flirted with running again for several months although it has not yet been confirmed.
Biden urged the party to discard “restrictive” caucuses, such as Iowa’s, because they harm working-class voters with their requirement of in-person attendance.
Scott Brennan, a committee member from Iowa, warned that the measure could alienate Democrats in the Breadbasket and Rust Belt states and boost “frontrunners and billionaire vanity candidates.”
“Democrats cannot forget about entire groups of voters in the heart of the Midwest without doing significant damage to the party in newer generations,” Brennan said.
The Republican National Committee will preserve the Iowa caucus as the first contest in its 2024 presidential primary, which Brennan suggested could advantage the GOP.