South Carolina moves toward first 2028 Democratic primary

South Carolina is poised to lead off the 2028 Democratic presidential nominating calendar after a key Democratic National Committee panel voted Friday to recommend keeping the state first, a decision that would preserve its elevated role over challenges from Nevada and New Hampshire.

The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee approved the proposed calendar at a meeting Friday. The full Democratic National Committee is expected to vote on it next month at its summer meeting in Austin, Texas.

Under the plan, six states would be allowed to hold nominating contests before Super Tuesday: South Carolina, Nevada, New Hampshire, Michigan, New Mexico and Virginia. Iowa, which for decades helped open the presidential nomination season, would be pushed out of the early-voting window altogether.

The decision follows months of lobbying by states seeking one of the coveted early slots. State parties first made pitches to DNC rules committee members during a January meeting in Puerto Rico and continued pressing their cases in the months that followed. A dozen states sought consideration, though some, including North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia, faced practical hurdles because Democrats would have needed Republican-controlled legislatures to change primary dates.

The most intense fight centered on South Carolina and Nevada, with Democrats weighing two core party constituencies. South Carolina Democrats argued that the party should continue to prioritize Black voters, who form the foundation of the state’s Democratic electorate. Nevada supporters said their state better reflects a broad coalition Democrats need to win nationally, including Latino voters, Black voters, Asian American and Pacific Islander voters, white working-class voters, men and low-propensity voters.

“When South Carolina goes first … the Deep South goes first, Black voters go first,” South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Christale Spain said this week in an interview with political commentator Roland Martin. “Black voters are the backbone of this party, and so we should continue to elevate Black voters’ role in the process, not push it further back.”

Spain had made a similar argument in May, saying, “This decision is bigger than South Carolina. It’s about whether the Democratic Party will stand with the voters who have stood with the party through everything.” She added, “Will Democrats meet this moment by supporting the communities on the front lines of defending democracy, or will the Democratic Party tell their most faithful voters they no longer deserve to lead the primary process?”

South Carolina’s case gained momentum after the Supreme Court weakened part of the Voting Rights Act, a ruling that prompted Republican-controlled states to redraw majority-minority districts represented largely by Black Democrats, according to NBC News. Supporters repeatedly invoked the history of Black voting rights in the South and the civil rights movement.

Donna Brazile, a rules committee member and former DNC chair, cited Barbara Jordan, the Black Democratic political figure, while criticizing the Supreme Court ruling. “If we believe in the future, the future that Barbara Jordan called us to build,” Brazile said, “we must begin the 2028 presidential primary season in the South.”

Nevada’s advocates mounted their own push, backed by lawmakers, Latino groups and labor leaders. They emphasized that Nevada is a battleground state that President Donald Trump won in 2024 and argued that Democrats must rebuild support among working-class and diverse voters there.

“Democrats keep losing working-class voters because we keep skipping the states where they actually live,” Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, the Democratic nominee for governor, wrote on X this week. “To win Nevada, you have to earn Latino voters, Black voters, AANHPI voters, AND white working-class voters — all at once.”

Nevada Democratic Party Chair Daniele Monroe-Moreno told the committee Friday that voter frustration should shape the party’s thinking. “Nonpartisan voter registration is the largest voter registration block in America now. Why? Because people are mad at both sides of the aisle,” she said. “My state, the state of Nevada, is that coalition that we need to win back.”

The calendar proposal extends a major reshuffling that began after Iowa’s botched 2020 caucuses and amid Democratic efforts to elevate more racially diverse states. Joe Biden pushed South Carolina to the front for 2024 after the state helped revive his 2020 campaign with a decisive primary win powered by Black voters.

The DNC is also expected to adopt stronger penalties for states that violate the approved calendar, including stripping all delegates, fining the state party $270,000, barring candidates from official party debates if they campaign in unsanctioned contests, and making penalties harder to reverse later.