National Democratic Party leaders have set the dates for the early voting contests as the party picks a presidential nominee and the Iowa Democratic Party’s Caucuses are not on the list.
Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said national Democrats didn’t “learn from the mistake” of kicking the Caucuses out of their lead-off role in 2024. “We need a Midwest and a truly rural state to be among the first four states if we hope to build sustainable and lasting Democratic majorities that enact real and meaningful change,” Hart said this weekend during the Democratic National Committee’s meeting.
The party’s new 2028 calendar flips South Carolina’s presidential primary into the lead-off spot, followed by Nevada, then New Hampshire. In 2024, New Hampshire officials ignored the shuffled calendar national Democrats came up with and still held their presidential primary first, which is required by New Hampshire’s constitution. The plan to have Georgia host an early Democratic presidential primary never happened, either. Hart says all that “chaos” for Democrats is likely again in 2028, just as Iowa Republicans will hold first-in-the-nation Caucuses in 2028.
“They will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to promote their candidates and they will bring tons of national media attention along,” Hart said.
Rob Sand, the Iowa Democratic Party’s candidate for governor, and Josh Turek, the party’s U.S. Senate nominee, have both said Iowa Democrats should follow Iowa law and hold their Caucuses first, too. Some Iowa Democrats have said hosting the Caucuses diverted attention from local races and their party should concede first-in-the-nation status to other states.
The Democratic National Committee has voted to add New Mexico and Virginia to its list of early 2028 presidential primaries and picked Michigan rather than Iowa or Illinois to hold a primary on February 22.
