Democrats' early 2028 primary calendar set to prioritize Black and Latino voters, organized labor

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Democrats' process for picking a 2028 presidential nominee will likely kick off in states where candidates will need to appeal to key supporters such as Black and Latino voters and union members.

It also may require fewer parkas for the winters in Iowa, which is out of the top spot of the proposed calendar, and learning to pronounce Nevada the way the locals do (it's Ne-VAD-ah).

The Democratic National Committee is scheduled to approve the calendar Saturday at a meeting in Texas.

South Carolina's primary would be first on Jan. 22, followed by Nevada on Feb. 1. New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan and Virginia would round out the early states, throughout February.

"It shouldn't surprise anyone as a result of it being the largest and most diverse committee that we got the most diverse calendar in our party's history," DNC Chairman Ken Martin, who has championed the calendar, told a gathering of the party's Black Caucus this week.

Democrats' 2028 presidential primary is expected to draw a large group of candidates. Already, some potential candidates have been making stops in states expected to vote early, such as South Carolina. Party leaders have widely praised the plan as giving its candidates the best shot at replacing President Donald Trump.

"They have to show that they can go to the South and talk to Black voters and rural voters, as well as out west, talking ranching and mining issues, to a border state, to union members," said party strategist Karen Finney, who has worked on multiple winning and losing presidential campaigns. "Whoever survives will be battle tested."

Former presidential candidate Howard Dean recalled his time as national party chairman, when Democrats solidified Nevada and South Carolina as early states behind Iowa and New Hampshire. The latest change is even better, he said.

"These states look more like the country," as a whole, he said, "whereas Iowa and New Hampshire don't."

As the first-in-the-South primary, South Carolina was more decisive than Iowa and New Hampshire for nominees Barack Obama in 2008, Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. All three dominated among South Carolina's large Black population, which can yield more than half the state's Democratic primary electorate.

"If you can't go to every part of this country and make your case, you should not be running for president," Finney said.

"I think our primary voters up north are probably a little different than primary voters in South Carolina," said Boyd Brown, a former DNC member from South Carolina. "It's not the woke ideologies that we just can't get away from" in other places.

Nina Smith, a former Buttigieg adviser who now works closely with progressive causes, disagreed. Smith agreed that Black South Carolinians, especially, have gravitated to more moderate candidates — twice rejecting Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in favor of Clinton and Biden. But, she said, "Southern Black voters are more progressive than they're given credit for" on policy but also "realists" about what's possible.

Bre Maxwell is a DNC member from South Carolina who said the state's smaller size and lower media costs are a financial equalizer, allowing not only the best-funded candidates to have an impact. "They can campaign from the top to the bottom in a day," Maxwell said.

"This is not a social or a debate club. It is a political party," Boyd Brown said, on the point of the calendar being to put a Democrat in the White House.

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Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press reporter Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, also contributed.