Why have the Democrats changed their primary calendar?

ACCORDING TO NEW HAMPSHIRE’SDNC electoral officials, this year’s Democratic primary is perfectly sound. According to the party’s national committee, it is “meaningless”. A state law passed in 1975 gives New Hampshire the authority to hold its primary seven days before that of any other state. But in 2023 the Democratic National Committee (), which administers the presidential nominating process, ordered it to go second, after South Carolina. New Hampshire Democrats refused: they are forging ahead with their election, before the Palmetto State, on January 23rd. What is this fight about?For decades the first presidential nominating contest for both Republicans and Democrats was the , in which voters gather at meetings across the state to select their candidate. New Hampshire held the first primary, a vote by secret ballot. Both states derived power and influence from their early slots, despite sending relatively few delegates to the two parties’ nominating conventions. In 1976 Jimmy Carter, a little-known former governor of Georgia, sent a “peanut brigade” of relatives and friends to New Hampshire. Their cars got stuck in the snow and their accents charmed New Englanders. The bet paid off. Having done well in Iowa, he won New Hampshire, then the nomination and finally the presidency. Today it is a truism that a campaign’s ability to generate momentum in these states is crucial—even though, in practice, early winners do not always get the nomination.