Democrats prepare to set their 2028 presidential nominating calendar

MINNEAPOLIS — Democrats are already looking to assemble their early-state presidential nominating calendar for 2028, with the party announcing Tuesday that it would kick off the process in September.

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said at the DNC’s summer meeting here that he aimed to have clarity about the order of the first primaries well ahead of the campaign.

“We’re planning for meetings throughout the fall and winter and through the spring to make sure that we have a rigorous, effective and fair calendar process,” Martin said. “We need this process to give us the strongest possible candidate, a candidate that’s battle-tested to win and ready to lead America forward.”

DNC members are already hearing unofficial pitches from representatives of different state delegations, all of them angling to bump their states to the front of the line.

Nevada wants to be first, arguing it offers a unique mix of working-class voters, diversity and battleground status. New Hampshire says it has its “First in the Nation” history — and state law — on its side. Iowa has its own state law dictating a first-in-the-nation caucus.

“Nevada remains the only state that meets all of the early state criteria previously set forth by the DNC,” Hilary Barrett, executive director of the Nevada State Democratic Party, said in a memo released Wednesday. “Elevating a union-strong, diverse, highly competitive battleground state will lay the groundwork to help Democrats win back working-class voters and voters of color. If we fail to rebuild that coalition, we won’t win back the White House.”

Then there’s South Carolina, which, under President Joe Biden, leaped to the front of the primary pack last year, with the party talking up its large Black population. And Michigan, with its battleground badge and Midwest credentials, joined the early ranks last year.

The 2024 reshuffling happened after the party agreed it should move away from Iowa and New Hampshire because their mostly white populations were less reflective of the Democratic Party and neither was a core battleground state. Iowa also fell into disfavor after the 2020 caucuses turned chaotic, with vote-counting problems that meant it didn’t offer a clear winner until days later.

But now, after 2024’s bitter White House loss to Donald Trump, Democratic Party dynamics may have changed enough that simply mentioning the word “Iowa” isn’t enough to throw it out of contention.

Recently, Martin told NBC News he welcomed Iowa’s making a pitch to go first again, in the same way he was open to every state that wanted to be vetted for the role. He said he didn’t believe in ruling out states that had been ruled out in the past.

“Every state who wants to be considered in the early states window will have an opportunity to bid just like they did last time, including Iowa, and other states,” Martin said early this month.

Martin said then that he wanted every region of the country represented.

“Which state emerges out of each region? My other commitment is to make sure that every state who wants to be heard gets a chance for a fair hearing and that no one comes in with a preconceived idea of what the calendar should be,” he added.

But Martin also didn’t name an Iowa DNC member to the pivotal Rules and Bylaws Committee, or RBC, which will again take a leading role in deciding the 2028 early state lineup.

Scott Brennan, an Iowa DNC member and former longtime member of the Rules and Bylaws Committee, said: “At the old RBC there was a bias against caucuses. We’ll see if the new RBC is as biased against caucuses. Chair Martin was supportive of us making an application if Iowa Democrats decide to do so.”