The Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee voted Friday to schedule South Carolina’s primary for Jan. 22 as the first contest in the 2028 Democratic presidential nominating calendar.
After South Carolina on Jan. 22, the committee set Nevada for Feb. 1, New Hampshire for Feb. 8, New Mexico for Feb. 15, Michigan for Feb. 22 and Virginia for Feb. 29.
Only six states will be permitted to hold primaries before Super Tuesday on March 7, 2028.
Axios reported that 26 members supported South Carolina for the first slot, 19 backed Nevada and four backed New Hampshire.
Democrats on the panel cited concerns about Nevada’s ability to process results quickly and said they wanted to strengthen Black voting power in the South after a Supreme Court decision that weakened part of the Voting Rights Act.
South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Christale Spain said, "When South Carolina goes first ... the Deep South goes first, Black voters go first."
"The place to start is in the West," David McDonald, a member of the committee, said. "The place to start is in Nevada, which offers the best combination of diversity, certainty and opportunity." Nevada was considered alongside South Carolina because some Democrats wanted to prioritize Latino voters, and because 2028 is an open primary advocates argued the state would test candidates with influential voting blocs; some members also worried Nevada might not be able to rapidly process results.
Nearly one in four registered voters in South Carolina is Black, according to state voting data. According to AP Vote Cast, 83% of Black voters nationwide backed former Vice President Kamala Harris in the last presidential election. "The South is not the past, we are the future," Spain said, and she added that Democrats need to demonstrate they are serious about making the investment in the South, noting South Carolina's flexibility for election dates and two weeks of early voting.
DNC member Donna Brazile spoke emotionally about voting rights, saying, "I watched as they waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited until they got the right to vote."
Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, said the mid-September deadline to move a state’s primary date caught members by surprise: "The rule was passed last year. A lot of us, because we deal with a lot of things, just forgot about it. We all thought we had until Jan. 15, which would have given more time to do it."
The committee chose Michigan over Iowa to be the Midwest’s early state.
NBC News said the decision officially pushes Iowa out of the early voting window after it had served as the opening contest for both parties up until 2024.
New Hampshire Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, and Reps. Chris Pappas and Maggie Goodlander said in a statement, "The Democratic National Committee’s decision today is wrong for Democrats, wrong for New Hampshire, and wrong for the country." Iowa Democratic Party chair Rita Hart said, "This is just another example that National Democrats are truly out of touch with voters. Iowa is the center of the political universe right now."
The full DNC will vote on the proposed calendar at its August meeting in Austin.
NBC News reported the party is expected to adopt stronger punishments for states that flout the approved calendar, including stripping those states of all delegates, fining the state party $270,000, banning candidates from official party debates if they campaign in unsanctioned contests, and making it harder to roll back those penalties later.
Politico said the vote capped months of intense lobbying, including pitches in Puerto Rico and outreach that featured handwritten notes from New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and "sweeteners in swag bags"; the outlet named Former Vice President Kamala Harris, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Ruben Gallego and former ambassador Rahm Emanuel as having traveled to South Carolina this year, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Rep. Ro Khanna as having visited last summer.
Sources said Nevada had backing from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Xavier Becerra but that some committee members worried Nevada’s grace period for counting late-arriving mail ballots could delay results and inject chaos into the nominating process.
NBC News noted that adding two more contests before Super Tuesday means there will be more delegates up for grabs for candidates to win before March.