The U.S. Democratic Party has voted to change the primary calendar, allowing South Carolina to become the first state to vote in the 2024 presidential primary election, taking over from Iowa and New Hampshire after nearly 50 years.
With the new calendar organization, which was proposed according to the recommendations of U.S. President Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate will be elected in South Carolina on February 3, Nevada and New Hampshire on February 6, followed by Georgia on February 13 and Michigan on February 27.
This revision of the primary calendar is aimed at starting the elections in those states with a greater number of black or Hispanic population, prone to favor the Democratic sector. In the previous calendar with Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina in the lead, according to the Democrats, the voices of these voters who best represent the demographics of the Democratic Party were not present.
«This calendar reflects the best of who we are as a nation and sends a powerful message,» said Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison. «The Democratic Party looks like America, and so does this proposal,» he added in statements reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Therefore, this calendar boosts in many ways those states more diverse or populated with minorities, those who in part drove Biden’s candidacy for the White House in 2020.
However, the new calendar, voted almost unanimously, presents some initial obstacles, such as the rejection of Republican leaders in the states of Georgia and especially in New Hampshire, where officials have agreed to hold the first primary anyway, according to ‘The New York Times’.
In addition, the leaders of the Democratic parties in Iowa and New Hampshire also opposed the new schedule during Saturday’s meeting, citing that the Democrats did not have the power to unilaterally change their state laws.
«We’re creating a situation of continued uncertainty that will last until 2023,» said Iowa DNC member Scott Brennan. «We will leave here with absolutely nothing resolved,» he has noted as quoted by ABC News.
The proposal to change the primary schedule was first laid out last December by the party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee. Although the new plan has been overwhelmingly supported by Democrats, a wing more critical of President Biden’s potential re-election has criticized it for what they see as hand-picking the states in which he should begin his campaign to return to the White House.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
