Volunteers counted secret ballots collected from participants at a Des Moines precinct location for the 2024 Iowa Republican caucuses on Jan. 15, 2024. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
The process for deciding the Democratic presidential nominating calendar will kick off in September, top party officials said at Democratic National Committee meetings this week.
The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, the body that oversees the nominating calendar, held its first meeting with new members Tuesday, hearing from DNC Chair Ken Martin at the body’s first general session in Minneapolis since Martin took the leadership role.
“Let me say this for everybody to hear: The presidential calendar process starts today,” Martin said. “We will be holding a series of meetings this year. We’re planning for meetings throughout the fall and winter and through the spring to make sure that we have a rigorous, effective, fair calendar and process. We need this process to give us the strongest possible candidate — a candidate that’s battle-tested to win and ready to lead America forward.”
Which states will kick off the nominating process for Democrats in the 2028 election cycle has not yet been decided. While Republicans and Democrats had the same schedule — starting with the Iowa caucuses, followed by the New Hampshire primary — that calendar was changed after the 2020 election. In the 2024 nominating cycle, Democrats had South Carolina kick off the process, followed by Nevada, New Hampshire, Georgia and Michigan.
The DNC agreed it would revisit the nominating schedule ahead of 2028 — a conversation that started Tuesday.
DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee Co-Chair Minyon Moore said at the meeting that the Rules and Bylaws Committee will meet again in September to “discuss and adopt a resolution formalizing a process for states to submit applications to move in the (early) window in 2028.”
State party leaders also went through the process of submitting applications for waivers to hold 2024 early presidential nominating contests. Though the DNC had approved a new calendar in 2022 which granted five states the ability to hold early contests, this calendar faced challenges as New Hampshire and Georgia’s Republican secretaries of state said they were unable to comply with the DNC’s nominating cycle which put them out of sync with state laws or Republicans’ nominating calendar.
The 2028 nominating calendar could face similar challenges. Just as New Hampshire held its 2024 Democratic primary on Jan. 23, 2024, outside of compliance with the national party, Iowa Democrats have also signaled they would consider holding a “rogue” contest in the next presidential election cycle.
The Iowa Democratic Party began asking for Iowa Democratic caucusgoers’ opinions on the presidential nominating contests through a “Family Conversation Survey” last week, which includes questions about whether Iowa Democrats should go “rogue” and hold the caucuses first even if they are not returned to the first-in-the-nation spot in 2028. The survey also includes questions about whether the state should resume in-person caucuses, which Iowa Democrats had stopped in 2024 in favor of a mail-in presidential preference cards system to address concerns about accessibility brought up by national Democrats.
Martin told NBC News earlier in August, “every state who wants to be considered in the early states window will have an opportunity to bid just like they did last time, including Iowa, and other states.”
Though the DNC will consider Iowa as an early state candidate, the state’s chances look slim heading into the process. In June, Scott Brennan of Iowa lost his long-held seat on the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee member, while New Hampshire gained a second seat.
Jim Roosevelt, the other co-chair of the Rules and Bylaws committee, said at the Tuesday meeting the DNC process for deciding which states can hold presidential nominating contests before Super Tuesday will remain similar to previous election cycles.
“I would just point out the process of applying to be in the early window is one we adopted several cycles ago,” Roosevelt said. “And state parties have the opportunity to make the case why they should be in the first group of states to hold primaries.”
The committee also discussed several amendments to party rules, led by Martin, aimed at making the DNC more inclusive. These measures included increasing the number of members selected by Asian American and Pacific Islander, Black, Hispanic, LGBTQ and Native American caucuse, requiring DNC staff and officers. remain neutral in Democratic primary races, and increasing oversight abilities of the budget committee.