Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
The winter of 2020 was treacherous for Joe Biden. After an abysmal performance in Iowa that left him with a fourth place finish, Biden felt the sting of a compounded one-two-punch when he lost New Hampshire and Nevada in consecutive weeks. Next on the 2020 primary schedule was South Carolina, a last glimmer of hope for team Biden.
Make no mistake, Biden needed a miracle, and we all know how it turned out. Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), and some of the first Black voters to participate in the presidential primary, answered the call and resurrected Biden’s 2020 campaign in one fell swoop. Some would argue that’s the only reason that the Democratic National Committee just voted to move South Carolina to the top of the 2024 primary schedule, and that this is Biden’s “thank you” to South Carolina, which is plausible. But the truth is that Black voters shouldn’t have to wait months to weigh in and pick a presidential nominee in the first place, and this long-overdue vote to change the primary schedule is going to benefit the Democratic Party.
Before you ask, no, there aren’t many Black and brown voters in Iowa and New Hampshire as both states are aggressively homogeneous. Iowa’s demographic population clocks in at 90.1% white, 4.3% Black, 6.7% Latino, 3% Asian-American Pacific Islander, and 0.6% Native American. And New…
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