As New Hampshire residents prepare to vote in Tuesday’s primary election, some may wonder why President Joe Biden’s name will not be on the ballot.
The absence of the Biden-Harris ticket is a result of a standoff between the Democratic National Committee and New Hampshire officials after the national party moved to designate South Carolina as the first primary state for the Democratic presidential contest.
New Hampshire previously held the first-in-the-nation primary for over a century, even solidifying its status in state law in 1975. So when national Democrats decided to change the first primary state as recommended by Biden, New Hampshire officials scoffed at the decision and bucked Democratic Party leadership by deciding not to change its state law that mandates the first-in-the-nation status.
The choice to name South Carolina as the new first primary state for the 2024 Democratic presidential calendar results from Biden wanting to center Black voters in the Palmetto State who were consequential to his 2020 primary victory.
Four years ago, after performing poorly in the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire and Nevada primaries, Biden saw an unlikely comeback when he overwhelmingly won in South Carolina, largely due to the state’s large Black voting population and a critical endorsement of longtime Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C. That win caused several moderate Democrats to drop out of the race and endorse Biden ahead of Super Tuesday.
“By the time the primary got to South Carolina … 99% of Black folks had no say whatsoever, in terms of determining the most powerful person on the face of the planet,” DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison said in a previous interview with theGrio about the presidential primary calendar before 2024.
Black voters now have a “seat at the table,” said Harrison, who credited the historic moment to Biden’s “visionary leadership.”
“The state where 40% of enslaved people came through the Port of…
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