New Hampshire Democrats will have one more month to submit a 2024 primary plan that complies with the national party’s rules after a Democratic National Committee panel voted Thursday to grant the state another extension.
The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee voted unanimously at a meeting in Washington, DC, to give Granite State Democrats until October 14 to submit a delegate selection plan that includes an approved primary date. Under DNC rules, states are not allowed to hold their nominating contests before March 5 unless they receive a waiver from the national party. The rules panel granted the extension after New Hampshire failed to submit a delegate selection plan by September 1 that included a primary date.
The rules panel voted earlier this year to replace New Hampshire as the first-in-the-nation primary state with South Carolina. Under the national party’s proposed plan, New Hampshire must hold its primary second – on February 6, the same day as Nevada – or face sanctions. South Carolina will hold its primary on February 3.
New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan has not yet set a date for the 2024 Republican and Democratic primaries, but he has said the state will not be in compliance with the DNC calendar. Under state law, the primary must be held a week before any other state holds a similar contest.
“I don’t think it’s a secret that we’re going to be going ahead of South Carolina, which puts us into January,” Scanlan said at a Wednesday news conference in New Hampshire.
A January primary date would violate the DNC’s timing rules and could cost the state party delegates to the national convention.
It would also be a violation of party rules for President Joe Biden to campaign in such a January contest in New Hampshire or to even have his name on the ballot, although voters could write him in.
Scanlan answered “no” Wednesday when asked if he was “OK” with the state losing delegates at the Democratic convention. But he defended New Hampshire’s early-primary status.
“It is more important for New Hampshire to have the early primary because it allows maximum participation from anybody that wants to put their name out there as a candidate,” he said. “If the president wins a majority of the vote through write-in and as a result of that is awarded delegates that get sent to the convention, is he really not going to let them in and what is that going to look like from a media perspective? I think the DNC will have some soul-searching to do if that’s going to be the penalty.”
Iowa status
The timing of the nominating contest in Iowa, another longtime early-voting state, also remains unresolved.
“We’re continuing to work with the Iowa Democratic Party to navigate a system that complies with our calendar. We understand that the Iowa party will have additional updates for us ahead of the October” meeting, James Roosevelt Jr., the co-chair of the DNC rules panel, said Thursday.
Iowa law requires its caucuses to be held before any other state, and the need to go before South Carolina Democrats is what pushed Iowa Republicans to schedule their caucuses on January 15. Despite the state law, the DNC’s new calendar removed Iowa from the group of early states entirely.
In response, the state party proposed a plan under which it would hold caucuses on the same day as Republicans but would only use them to conduct party business, not to vote for president. The presidential preference vote would be a separate process, conducted entirely by mail.
However, Iowa Democrats haven’t specified the dates for that mail process, and without that information, the DNC rules panel declined to approve the plan at its June meeting.
Party staff said the vote-by-mail period must end on or after March 5 (the date at which every state is allowed to start holding Democratic contests) for the plan to comply with party rules.
While a few other states may still shift their primary dates, the rest of the Democratic calendar is largely set.
After Nevada, Michigan will hold its Democratic primary on February 27, and then the primary season will begin in earnest with Super Tuesday on March 5.
This story and headline have been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Alison Main contributed to this report.
