Report: Biden Wants South Carolina as First 2024 Dem Primary State

Some news this morning about how Democrats may reorganize their presidential primary calendar in 2024. As previously reported, it seems that Iowa, on the Democratic side, is finally on the chopping block and about to get axed from its early position.

The next most likely state to replace Iowa had been Nevada but now reports indicate President Biden has been involved in the discussions and he wants to see South Carolina take the lead as the first Democratic primary state in 2024:

President Joe Biden is pushing for South Carolina to host the first Democratic presidential primary, aiming to usher more diversity into the party’s campaigns to lead the country, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Starting in 2024, Biden would like to see South Carolina, where more than half of registered Democrats are Black, to be the first state to hold presidential primary contests, followed by New Hampshire and Nevada one week later, then Georgia, and then Michigan, those people said on Thursday.

The plans, which are likely to be adopted by party leaders at a meeting in Washington that starts Friday, signal a possible end to Iowa’s “first in the nation” caucus that has drawn close media attention for nearly half a century, and show the Democratic Party reacting to the country’s changing demographics.

Keep in mind, Republicans have shown no desire to mess with their presidential primary calendar, these changes only pertain to the 2024 Democratic presidential primary.

With Biden’s proposal, South Carolina, which has been typically voting fourth on the list, will move up to the first position. The new calendar would still keep New Hampshire as the second in the line, then keep Nevada in the third spot, replace South Carolina with Georgia, then throw in Michigan to boot. It’s presumed all these states would be granted the permission to hold their primary in the month before other states line up typically in March for a “Super Tuesday” vote.

There are hurdles to this as some states will not give up their status quietly. It’s possible that Iowa Democrats might still hold their early caucus but the DNC might penalize them and cut their delegate count for jumping out of line. That may be the only punishment that might convince them to go along with the new process. No state wants to lose its clout at the national convention by losing delegates.

The problem for Iowa is that in 2020, on the Democratic side, it didn’t bolster its argument to stay at the front of the line. The caucus was plagued with technical issues despite being orchestrated with a state-of-the-art app designed with help from Google. The system failed spectacularly leaving the count to go on for days before accurate numbers could be reported.

As technology advances, it seems that elections of any kind have become more and more burdensome to accurately and efficiently count with any semblance of urgency. Perhaps primary slots on the calendar should be awarded to states with the most efficient and secure voting rules in place. Democrats aren’t typically worried about that, though, since messy and drawn-out vote counts are their bread and butter.

Iowa aside, South Carolina would no doubt be thrilled to assume the first position on the calendar and welcome the attention and clout that comes with it. Likewise, Georgia and Michigan would surely jump at the chance to become more relevant during the process as well.

In pushing south Carolina first, Biden is essentially repaying Democrats in the state for rescuing his anemic 2020 campaign by actually giving him a primary victory following his losses in Iowa and New Hampshire. It’s a quid-quo-pro arrangement, something that Biden’s rather familiar with.

We won’t know the end result of what the DNC adopts for a few days but it’s becoming clear that Iowa’s status as the jumpstart for Democrats seems to be gone already