Biden Pushes For MI To Be Early Presidential Primary State In 2024: Report

MICHIGAN — President Joe Biden pushed Democrats to elevate Michigan into the party's early 2024 presidential nominating cycle, as he stressed the need to add more diversity to the early vetting process, according to reports.

The proposal would eliminate the Iowa caucuses' to start the early nominating cycle, and would instead allow South Carolina to go first, followed by New Hampshire and Nevada a week later, then Georgia and Michigan, reports said. Any changes to the calendar would still have to be ratified by the full Democratic National Committee in a vote, which is likely to come early next year and is expected to be approved.

In his Thursday letter to Democratic leaders, Biden said Democrats "should no longer allow caucuses as part of our nominating process," dealing a blow to Iowa, which is predominately made up of white voters.

"Working class families are the backbone of our economy. Union households must be represented in greater numbers than before," Biden wrote. "We need to include voters from many backgrounds, not to ratify the choice of the earliest states, but as full stakeholders in making the choice."

State Democrats first pushed for Michigan to be first in the early Democratic presidential nominating cycle in April, arguing the state's diverse electorate would be more competitive than Iowa and New Hampshire, which have dominated the early voting process.

Moreover, Michigan has shown to be a true swing state the past two presidential election cycles, when President Biden won the state by less than three percentage points in 2020, and former President Donald Trump narrowly won the state by less than a quarter of a percentage point in 2016.

"In order to win the Presidency you must win the heartland. That’s why Michigan is the best place to pick a President," Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow said. "Together, we are one stop closer to making sure the Presidential selection process truly reflects all of America."

The proposed seismic shift in the nominating calendar did not sit well with small early states — predominantly white Iowa, which had embarrassing vote-tabulation problems in 2020, and New Hampshire, which traditionally has held the first presidential primary a week after Iowa’s caucuses.

Both states have laws protecting their prized first-in-the-nation status. They could simply ignore the new calendar, though they would forfeit delegates to the national convention if they did so.
New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu has said his state will proceed as usual and hold the primary a week before any other state, putting Democratic candidates in the position of ignoring the state or facing sanctions from their party.

“The DNC did not give New Hampshire the first-in-the-nation primary, and it is not theirs to take away,” New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley said in a statement. “This news is obviously disappointing, but we will be holding our primary first. We have survived past attempts over the decades, and we will survive this.”

New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen issued a statement blasting “the White House’s short-sighted decision,” while fellow New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan said, “I strongly oppose the President’s deeply misguided proposal.”

"But make no mistake," Hassan said in a statement. “New Hampshire’s law is clear, and our primary will continue to be first in the nation.”

Scott Brennan, Iowa’s representative to the Rules and Bylaws Committee, said party leaders in his state will “stand up for Iowa’s place in the process.”

Biden called the caucuses "restrictive and anti-worker," since they require voters to devote "significant amounts of time" in a nighttime gathering to choose candidates in person, "disadvantaging hourly workers and anyone who does not have the flexibility to go to a set location at a set time," he said.

Dick Harpootlian, a longtime Biden ally, fundraiser and former South Carolina Democratic Party chair, said Thursday that he and Biden discussed South Carolina’s possible advancement the night of Biden’s 2020 primary victory there, The Associated Press reported.

Harpootlian said he’d impressed upon Biden that the state was a better place than Iowa to hold an even earlier presidential voting contest — to which Harpootlian said Biden was receptive.
“I think he agreed that this was a much more dynamic process,” Harpootlian said. “Iowa was just a nightmare.”

Biden also said the calendar should be reviewed every four years to ensure it still reflects the values and diversity of the party and the country.

Democrats will need Republican support in Georgia to move up the party’s primary. Republicans plan to stick with Iowa as the lead-off state in their nominating process, followed by New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

If the Iowa Democratic Party acquiesces to the national party, the two political parties would have different presidential primary calendars for the first time in years.

Patch Editor Beth Dalbey contributed to this report