South Carolina Beats Nevada for First 2028 Democratic Presidential Primary — Again
The party shut Iowa out of early voting entirely.
LAS VEGAS — For the second election cycle in a row, Nevada Democrats will cast a wistful eye towards another state that gets the first presidential primary.
A Democratic National Committee panel Friday voted to designate South Carolina as the site for the opening 2028 primary, just as it was in 2024. The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee cast 26 votes for South Carolina, 19 for Nevada, and four for New Hampshire.
South Carolina will hold its Democratic presidential primary January 22, 2028, with Nevada Democrats going to the polls 10 days later, February 1.
New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan, and Virginia will be the other contests before Super Tuesday. Iowa, which had been both parties’ first race until 2024, won’t be part of early voting at all.
The full DNC membership is expected to ratify the panel’s choice in August.
Apart from conferring bragging rights, being first can influence outcomes in subsequent ballots.
South Carolina’s repeat selection to lead off Democratic voting is poised to give the state’s black population substantial clout. Congressman Jim Clyburn’s 2020 primary endorsement of Joe Biden elevated the former vice president to front-runner status even without the state hosting the first contest. Mr. Biden won that primary and then the nomination.
Nevada Democrats argued their state has black, Latino, Native-American, Asian-American, Native-Hawaiian, Pacific-Islander, and white-working-class voters, a mix “our party must win back if we’re serious about flipping the White House in 2028,” state party chair Daniele Monroe-Moreno said after the Friday vote.
The Silver State also has a substantial union presence thanks to the hospitality and gaming industries. Culinary Union Local 228 is a major player in southern Nevada politics, with its members keeping the Las Vegas area’s three congressional seats in Democrat hands.
President Trump won South Carolina in 2020 and 2024. Mr. Biden won Nevada in 2020, but Mr. Trump flipped the swing state red four years later. The Republican beat Democratic nominee Kamala Harris with 50.6 percent of the vote to her 47.5 percent, the first GOP win here since 2004.
The Nevada Independent reported local Democrats made a full-court press to gain the top spot. Party officials gave panel members copies of a new biography of Harry Reid, the late Senate majority leader, and personalized Nevada license plates reading “NV F1RST.”
Congressman Steven Horsford, a Las Vegas Democrat, decried the decision.
“This has never been about one state or one community. It’s about building the coalition that wins 270 electoral votes,” Mr. Horsford wrote on social media. “Nevada is where candidates demonstrate they can unite the diverse coalition Democrats need to win — not just a primary, but the presidency.”
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