2028 Democratic – A dozen states are pitching the Democratic National Committee for control of the first votes in the 2028 presidential primary. The DNC could pick at least four—and possibly a fifth—before Super Tuesday, a decision that could shape who becomes “battle-tested” w
For Democrats, the fight isn’t just about who will run in 2028—it’s about who gets to be seen first.
On Friday. May 29. 2026. in an episode of The Excerpt podcast. Dana Taylor spoke with Francesca Chambers. the White House correspondent. about how Democrats are already battling over which states will cast the earliest votes in the 2028 presidential primary. The stakes are clear: the first four—or potentially five—states bring outsized influence and can pull in millions of dollars from both campaigns and the press.
This week, arguments from 12 states were presented to the Democratic National Committee. Those pitches ranged from claims rooted in racial diversity to bids centered on electoral history—each state trying to prove it can help Democrats nominate someone ready for the general election.
The DNC’s stated goal is to make early voting reflect America, not just one slice of it. That means early states that capture racial diversity and geographic diversity. with room for rural voters as well as suburban voters. In the Democratic view. the nominee entering the general election should already be battle-tested in front of different types of voters.
That emphasis lands after a bruising stretch. Democrats are still trying to understand why they lost to Donald Trump twice in the past decade, including in the 2024 election and in 2016.
Whether the calendar itself can help with that rebuild is now part of the internal debate.
The rules the DNC is working under require that the first four states to vote before Super Tuesday come from all four regions—Eastern, Southern, Midwestern, and Western—with the DNC allowed to choose a fifth state if it wants to.
Chambers said the “it might actually end up being five states” scenario is on the table, and the logic is tied to how the party wants its early slice of the map to look.
The newer dynamics in the bidding show how quickly the process has changed from cycle to cycle. Chambers described it as a brand new game for some states because the DNC did this four years ago heading into the 2024 election, after months of uncertainty.
She pointed to Iowa as a major example of a state trying to get a “clean slate” opportunity. Iowa had been cut from the early window before the 2024 cycle, giving it a chance to try again as one of the 12 states making a case.
But she also highlighted that other states are trying to stay in the window after last time. Georgia. added to the early window for the previous cycle. may not be able to hold its place because it was unable to meet the DNC’s requirements. meaning it did not end up holding one of the early primaries before Super Tuesday.
In Chambers’ telling, the DNC committee is rehashing old worries. There is fear that if Georgia were picked again, it could fail to meet the window—and that could trigger a chain reaction in which another state is kicked out only to find the schedule disrupted again.
Iowa’s case: go first, not later
Iowa’s pitch is unusually direct: it wants to be first, not pushed back in the early lineup.
Chambers said New Hampshire took jabs at Iowa in response. New Hampshire argued it always votes on time and that its votes are counted on time as well, and that it has a better history of picking the eventual nominee.
Chambers also described the campaigning theater surrounding the pitches: Iowa and the former Raygun notebooks were referenced, and New Hampshire was said to have included local businesses in its bag for committee members.
Still. the argument that most clearly ties Iowa to power in the general election came from how the state framed the Republican contrast. Iowa said the Republicans are guaranteed to go first too. and that Republicans will “flood” the airwaves and talk to Iowa voters. The warning. as Iowa presented it. was that if Iowa Democrats are not in the early window—or are later down the early window—Democrats would be leaving the state “unchecked” as Republicans spend heavily.
In that view, the harm extends beyond presidential races into the ability of Democratic candidates for Congress and Senate to win once the general election arrives, because time would have already been ceded to Republicans.
South Carolina, the 2024 shift, and the New Hampshire conflict
The calendar fight is not happening in a vacuum. In 2024, President Joe Biden suggested a shakeup that put South Carolina first.
Chambers said South Carolina’s defense of first place draws on two points: Biden’s own connection to the state—where he won his first primary victory in 2020—and South Carolina’s racial diversity. including the number of African Americans in the state. described by Chambers as a traditionally large Democratic base.
But South Carolina’s first-place push is tangled with New Hampshire law.
Chambers said New Hampshire has a state law that mandates it hold the first primary of the election cycle. When Biden put South Carolina first in 2024. he put New Hampshire and Nevada second and on the same day. and then added Michigan as well as Georgia. Georgia ultimately did not make it into the early calendar.
Now Democrats face a “tough decision,” Chambers said, built around whether New Hampshire’s legal requirement means it will go first anyway.
If South Carolina is kept at the beginning of the calendar but New Hampshire still moves first because of state law. the party has to decide whether it’s worth repeating a conflict. Chambers framed it as a question of whether Democrats want to keep fighting over the distraction of a wide open primary in 2028. when there is no incumbent running for reelection.
There is also an electoral-history objection. Chambers said South Carolina is not a battleground state. Its national electoral history has not elected Democrats at the national level for decades.
That has led Democrats to look beyond South Carolina for replacement or addition. Chambers named Georgia as a possibility but also pointed to North Carolina as “deeply” under consideration. She said North Carolina has similar demographics to South Carolina. voted for Barack Obama in 2008. and is generally considered a battleground state.
Michigan enters again
Michigan was new to the early window last time, replacing Iowa, Chambers said, and Michigan is now fighting to stay in the early lineup.
Her account of Michigan’s argument centers on the state’s diverse geography and diverse state profile. alongside its status as a core battleground state. She also said Michigan is tied to Democratic disappointment in the 2024 presidential election. noting Michigan was among the states Democrats lost in the last presidential election.
Can New Hampshire be penalized for rebelling in 2024?
Chambers addressed a question that sits at the heart of the DNC’s decision-making: what happens when a state doesn’t follow the DNC calendar.
In 2024, New Hampshire rebelled against the DNC calendar by holding its primary before Super Tuesday without the DNC’s blessing. Chambers said committee members, in responding to New Hampshire’s presentation, indicated they thought New Hampshire did a very good job.
She described a change in how New Hampshire made its case this time. Last cycle, Chambers said New Hampshire’s argument was heavily “We’ve traditionally been first, we always go first, we should be first,” and that approach rubbed committee members the wrong way and may have worked against them.
In the current presentation, New Hampshire’s case shifted toward experience. Chambers said New Hampshire argued that it has extensive experience vetting candidates and demonstrated its ability to vet candidates. It also argued that candidates would do retail stops so voters can get to know them well. and that the state’s voters are discerning in their judgment.
Chambers compared the committee’s questions to the Supreme Court in the sense that the line of questioning can reveal what members are thinking. She also said multiple members felt New Hampshire presented better than it did last time.
She added a detail that could weigh on the calendar debate: in the 2024 election, New Hampshire rebelled, allies of President Biden ran a write-in, and Biden still won the state.
Delaware’s pitch and the Biden bruise
Delaware’s case is complicated by its associations.
Chambers said Delaware could potentially replace New Hampshire or be in addition to it if the DNC decides on five states. Delaware’s argument included a reference to its beaches, described as something that might attract attention.
But the concern she reported from conversations with committee members was political and emotional. Delaware is closely associated as the home state of former President Joe Biden. Chambers said Biden’s abrupt quit in 2024 and his tapping of Vice President Kamala Harris with 107 days to go—Harris then becoming the nominee. as Chambers described based on what she wrote in her book—created a sore spot among some Democrats.
In that framing, the worry is that if Delaware gets picked, it could look like the DNC chose Delaware because of Biden rather than because Delaware could succeed on the party’s own terms.
Chambers said Democrats also want to do their own process after Biden’s involvement in 2024.
The West: Nevada vs. New Mexico
The Western region battle is another key part of the calculus because the DNC is trying to balance geography.
Chambers said Nevada seems to have a good chance because it is described as a battleground state with a diverse working class and a Latino population group that Democrats lost huge ground with in 2024.
She said Nevada was one of the four early states in 2024. The issue for Nevada earlier was that it used to have a caucus, and Democrats were concerned about it being kicked out of the early window. Chambers said Nevada addressed that by moving from a caucus to a primary.
She also said Nevada was upgraded last time once Biden put it on the same day as New Hampshire, and that she hasn’t heard “heartburn” about Nevada in the current debate.
Chambers said New Mexico’s odds appear low in part because there will be more than one state pitch for every region. She said New Mexico is “not so much” a major Latino-population priority compared with Nevada.
Deadlines and the ticking clock toward 2028
There may not be a single official deadline for the DNC’s decision, but Chambers described a practical one that hangs over the party.
She said that last time this process went into December. and Democrats were able to let it drag longer because Biden was running as an incumbent. The dynamic changes in 2028: there will be a “whole host” of Democrats expected to run. and the field is already coming into focus as the party looks toward the 2026 midterms.
In Chambers’ account, candidates are already campaigning and some are not shy about considering presidential runs. That forces state decisions to matter now, because candidates need clarity on which states they’ll be in.
She said Democrats want this calendar set without repeating the months-long drag that happened last time, when Biden got involved.
Chambers said she was told Democrats are looking to make a decision by August—by the end of summer—because that aligns with the party’s summer meeting.
Once the rules and bylaws committee sets the calendar, the calendar still has to go before the entire Democratic National Committee for a vote. Chambers said that vote typically happens at one of their big meetings, and missing the August timeframe would put them in a jam.
As the pitches continue, the DNC’s challenge is simple to state and hard to manage: pick the earliest voters in a way that reflects the country, strengthens the nominee before the general election, and avoids repeating the conflicts that have already shown how messy the first four slots can become.
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