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The panel that sets the party's voting order could make that
determination as early as Friday when it meets in Washington,
two people with knowledge of the party's process but not
authorized to discuss it publicly told The Associated Press on
Monday.
The Rules and Bylaws Committee has been holding monthly meetings
as it considers the order in which states will vote during the
2028 primaries. The panel has heard presentations from a dozen
states hoping to kick off the party's primaries and caucuses,
including Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada and South
Carolina.
The calendar isn't considered set until it's approved by the
full DNC, which is scheduled to meet in August. The DNC did not
immediately respond to a request for comment.
Democrats upended their process for setting their calendar after
Iowa's 2020 Democratic caucus debacle, which led to days of
uncertainty over who had won. The party since then has favored
more diverse states.
For the 2024 cycle, President Joe Biden led a DNC effort to have
South Carolina — which for years has held the party's first
Southern contest — go first overall in the party’s primaries. He
cited the state’s more racially diverse population compared to
the traditional first-in-the-nation states of Iowa and New
Hampshire, which are overwhelmingly white.
Four years earlier, Rep. Jim Clyburn, South Carolina's lone
congressional Democrat and for a time the top Black Democratic
lawmaker on Capitol Hill, helped Biden revive his flagging
primary campaign and win a resounding victory in the state. He
then went on to secure the party's presidential nomination.
South Carolina's Democratic leaders have pushed for the state to
lead off again, lobbying for support and getting buy-in from
Democratic Party chairs in five Southern states. In May, they
pressed for South Carolina to reprise its role as the party’s
first-in-the-nation contest holder, arguing that the state best
represents the initial playing field for presidential candidates
to build the coalitions needed to win.
A quarter of the state's population is Black and about 9% is
Hispanic, according to the Census Bureau.
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