COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Democratic Party could be just days away from taking a preliminary vote on the order of its 2028 presidential primary calendar, though the outcome won’t be considered final until the broader party organization signs off.
According to two people familiar with the party’s internal process who were not authorized to speak publicly, the committee responsible for setting the voting order could make a decision as soon as Friday when it convenes in Washington. The Associated Press learned of the possible timeline on Monday.
The Rules and Bylaws Committee has been holding regular monthly gatherings to weigh which states should lead off the 2028 primaries and caucuses. So far, the panel has heard pitches from about a dozen states eager to go early in the process, including Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina.
Even if the committee reaches a decision Friday, the calendar won’t be locked in until the full Democratic National Committee formally approves it. That meeting is currently scheduled for August. The DNC did not respond to a request for comment.
The Democratic Party overhauled how it sets its primary calendar following a chaotic 2020 Iowa caucus that left the party scrambling for days to determine a winner. Since then, party leaders have leaned toward giving earlier slots to states with more diverse populations.
For the 2024 election cycle, then-President Joe Biden spearheaded a push to move South Carolina — long the party’s first Southern contest — to the front of the line overall. He argued the state’s population is more racially diverse than the traditional early states of Iowa and New Hampshire, both of which are predominantly white.
South Carolina also holds a meaningful place in Biden’s political history. Four years before his 2024 push, Rep. Jim Clyburn — the state’s only congressional Democrat and at that time the highest-ranking Black Democrat in Congress — played a pivotal role in rescuing Biden’s struggling primary campaign. Biden went on to win the state decisively and ultimately secured the party’s presidential nomination.
South Carolina’s Democratic leaders have been actively lobbying to hold onto that coveted first-in-the-nation spot for 2028. They’ve secured support from Democratic Party chairs in five Southern states, and in May they made their case to the committee, arguing that South Carolina provides the ideal opening contest for candidates to begin assembling the broad coalitions needed to win a general election.
Census Bureau data shows that roughly a quarter of South Carolina’s population is Black, and approximately 9% is Hispanic.
