New Hampshire Democrats Are Silent (Again) As State's FITN Primary Faces DNC Chopping Block

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

When the Democratic National Committee stripped New Hampshire of its First-in-the-Nation (FITN) primary status for the first time in a century, critics pointed fingers at the state’s all-Democratic federal delegation. Where were they, and how did it happen on their watch?

On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that New Hampshire’s FITN status is once again on the chopping block. Politically active Granite Staters are asking why Democratic leaders like U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas and gubernatorial candidate Cinde Warmington are silent.

“South Carolina and Nevada have emerged as the two front-runners to begin the 2028 Democratic presidential nominating calendar,” the Times’ Shane Goldmacher reported, quoting the South Carolina Democratic Party chair as saying, “It’s almost like we’re running against Nevada.”

Meanwhile, Goldmacher reported, “multiple officials said that support on the rules committee for allowing New Hampshire to go first had sagged.”

The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee is meeting this week and could make a calendar recommendation by the weekend. If it throws New Hampshire under the bus, Granite State politicos are asking: Where are the state’s Democratic leaders?

Pappas, who wants to be the state’s next U.S. senator, declined to respond to requests for comment about the DNC’s upcoming decision and has not issued a public statement.

Republicans aren’t surprised.

“Chris Pappas does what the party bosses tell him to do. So not only will he let New Hampshire’s FITN status fade, he’ll cheer it if he’s told to,” said Mike Schrimpf, spokesman for the John E. Sununu U.S. Senate campaign.

Scott Brown, who is also seeking the GOP Senate nomination, put a price tag on the Democrats’ silence.

“It tells me that they don’t care about the $250-$275 million of economic impact that will be lost once again for the failure to stand up for our FITN status. They didn’t do their jobs four years ago, and they’re not doing their job now. They clearly don’t have any juice. If Chris Pappas is our senator, he will sell us out once again.

“My message?” Brown added. “Chris, do your job.”

During the 2024 cycle, President Joe Biden and his allies decided to put South Carolina first, allowing the aging and infirm president to avoid the physically taxing retail campaigning expected by New Hampshire voters.

Rather than defend the primary, Democratic leaders like Pappas, Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, and state party chair Ray Buckley covered for Biden by participating in a write-in campaign that allowed him to kill the FITN primary without suffering an embarrassing loss at the polls.

The strategy backfired when Biden’s infirmity was exposed during his June 27 debate with Donald Trump, forcing him to drop out of the race.

At the time, political observers warned that by refusing to fight for the primary, Granite State Democratic leaders were making it easier for the DNC to dismiss the state in the future.

The future, it appears, is now.

Not that the FITN primary is in danger of being cancelled. With or without the DNC’s sanction, both parties will hold the nation’s first presidential primary in the 2028 race.

“New Hampshire’s state law will always see to it that we have the first in the nation primary. Full stop,” said Scott Merrick of Darby Field Advisors. “If 2024 was any indication of what the DNC will do, they will huff and they will puff about New Hampshire’s primary, but ultimately our house will stay standing, and they will seat our delegates.”

Asked if he had a message for the DNC, New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan said, “I have no comment at this time. The members of the DNC know where New Hampshire stands on this issue.”

For some Democrats, the frustration isn’t over which state should go first, but why their party is having this fight in the first place.

“Our problem as Democrats isn’t the calendar, it’s the candidates,” said Democratic strategist and CBS News political contributor Joel Payne. “We need candidates who can bring working-class voters, in particular working-class Black and Hispanic voters, into the coalition. Some in the party have mistaken ‘fix the calendar’ with doing the work we need to reconnect with these voters.”

Kevin Walling is a Democratic operative who recently moved to South Carolina. He said New Hampshire “has earned its place in presidential politics because voters there take the process seriously and force candidates to answer tough questions in an intimate setting. I would say the same thing about keeping South Carolina First in the South.”

Walling’s complaint is that the calendar debate “shouldn’t be about gaming the system for or against any potential 2028 candidate — it should be about building a process that’s viewed as legitimate and helps Democrats nominate the strongest possible candidate.”

So why aren’t New Hampshire Democrats taking to the barricades on behalf of the FITN primary?

Several Democratic operatives told NHJournal on background that the party’s base doesn’t care.

“You think the ‘Free Palestine’ people want white liberals to pick the president?” one said.

Polling tends to support that view. A UNH Survey Center poll released earlier this year found that fewer than half of registered Democrats — 46 percent — said keeping the primary first was very or somewhat important. Among self-described progressives, it was just 42 percent. That’s far below the 80 percent of registered Republicans and 74 percent of conservatives who said the same.

“No one in the congressional delegation believes they will suffer politically if the DNC denies the New Hampshire primary First-in-the-Nation status,” said UNH political science professor Dante Scala. “They believe, and not without reason, that their fellow New Hampshire Democrats are somewhat ambivalent about the primary’s status, and that independents just don’t care much at all. So don’t expect more than expressions of disappointment and finger-pointing at the DNC if the primary is lost.”

One Republican who is adamant about keeping New Hampshire at the front of the line is Gov. Kelly Ayotte.

“It’s total BS that the DNC is once again even considering passing over New Hampshire’s First-in-the-Nation primary,” Ayotte said. “We’ve earned that status because we do primaries right — candidates have to earn every vote by talking with voters face-to-face at VFWs, town halls, diners, and everywhere in between.

“I will always defend New Hampshire’s place in history as First-in-the-Nation and look forward to hosting the first primaries for both parties in 2028.”

Warmington, who hopes to be the state’s next Democratic governor, declined to respond.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.