By Jarrett Renshaw
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – The Democratic National Committee on Saturday approved President Joe Biden’s overhaul of the party’s 2024 primary calendar, giving black voters more voice in the nomination process and paving an easier path to the long-awaited bid. of Biden’s re-election.
The party’s vote on Saturday replaced Iowa’s famous caucuses as the nation’s first primaries for South Carolina, a state with many more black voters that saved Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. Nevada would be a week later, and then Georgia and Michigan.
The promotion of South Carolina and Georgia reflects a demographic balance that has been building for decades for the Democratic Party, to the detriment of two mostly white states that rejected Biden in 2020. It also underscores the growing power of the racially diverse coalition that helped to take Biden to the White House.
“The Democratic Party looks like America, and so does this proposal,” said Jaime Harrison, chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
The measure faced opposition from leaders in Iowa and New Hampshire, who are being pushed back on the nominating calendar and who have vowed to defy the new schedule by holding elections according to their own agenda. Any change to these calendars requires the support of Republicans who control the government and are against the proposal.
Iowa and New Hampshire have been nominating season for decades, and the process – in which candidates campaign for months in cafes and in people’s homes – has become a valuable part of their social and political identities.
Iowa and New Hampshire can be punished if they end up disobeying the party, with sanctions such as banning candidates from campaigning in the state or loss of delegates. Officials warned on Saturday that this could hurt Biden’s chances of winning in those states in 2024.
In Georgia, the Democrats want to advance the calendar, but the Republicans who control the government in the state are against the change.
Georgia and New Hampshire have until June to meet the new schedule, but few expect that to happen.
“We can vote on this calendar, we can pass this calendar, but we’re going to leave here with absolutely nothing resolved,” said Scott Brennan, a former Iowa party chairman.
The conference highlighted Biden’s increasing control over a party that was openly skeptical about his viability and worried about his age ahead of midterm elections in November, only to see Democrats outperform and change. the narrative.
Already the oldest person to be president, Biden would be 82 if sworn in for a second term.
Biden’s primary calendar won overwhelming approval in a voice-over vote, and party committee members appeared excited for Biden’s re-election when he addressed the public in Philadelphia on Friday.
“Let me ask you a simple question: are you with me?” Biden asked the crowd of supporters, amid chants of “four more years”.
(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Diane Bartz)
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