COLUMBIA, S.C. – Democrats may move as soon as this week toward deciding which states will open the party’s 2028 presidential primary calendar, though any recommendation would still need approval from the full Democratic National Committee before becoming official.
The DNC panel responsible for shaping the presidential nominating schedule could act as early as Friday during a meeting in Washington, according to two people familiar with the internal process who spoke to The Associated Press on Monday on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The Rules and Bylaws Committee has been meeting monthly while weighing how to structure the 2028 Democratic primary schedule. Over the course of those discussions, members have heard pitches from 12 states seeking early positions in the lineup, with Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina among those making their cases.
Even if the committee settles on a proposed order, the Democratic primary calendar will not be locked in until the full DNC signs off. That vote is expected when the national party gathers in August. The DNC did not immediately answer a request for comment.
The party’s approach to its nominating calendar changed dramatically after the troubled 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses, when reporting problems left the outcome unclear for days. Since then, Democratic leaders have placed greater emphasis on giving more diverse states an earlier voice in the presidential nomination process.
Ahead of the 2024 election cycle, President Joe Biden backed a DNC push to put South Carolina first on the Democratic primary calendar. The state, long home to the party’s first Southern presidential contest, was elevated in part because its electorate is far more racially diverse than Iowa and New Hampshire, the overwhelmingly white states that had traditionally led off the process.
South Carolina also holds deep political significance for Biden. In 2020, Rep. Jim Clyburn — the state’s only congressional Democrat and, at the time, one of the most powerful Black Democrats in Congress — gave Biden a crucial endorsement that helped rescue his struggling campaign. Biden went on to win South Carolina decisively and later captured the Democratic presidential nomination.
Democratic officials in South Carolina are now pressing to keep that first-in-the-nation status for 2028. State party leaders have been lobbying for support and have secured backing from Democratic Party chairs in five Southern states. In May, they argued that South Carolina should again launch the Democratic presidential primaries because it offers candidates an early test of the broad coalitions they must build to win nationally.
A quarter of the state’s population is Black and about 9% is Hispanic, according to the Census Bureau.
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Cappelletti reported from Washington. Meg Kinnard can be reached at
