President Joe Biden will not be on the ballot for New Hampshire’s Democratic primary election amid a dispute between the party and the state over its “first-in-the-nation” status, according to multiple reports.
The Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) Rules and Bylaws Committee on December 2, 2022 voted to schedule the South Carolina primary as the first nominating contest for the party in the 2024 presidential election — displacing New Hampshire as the first such state. New Hampshire has since vowed to hold its primary regardless of the party’s decision, which led to the Biden presidential campaign declining to participate in the contest, according to a letter sent by the campaign’s manager to the state party on Tuesday and obtained by The Hill. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Nevada Democratic Party Defies Biden’s Measure For South Carolina To Precede Its 2024 Primary)
“While the president wishes to participate in the Primary, he is obligated as a Democratic candidate for President to comply with the Delegate Selection Rules for the 2024 Democratic National Convention,” Julia Chavez Rodriguez, the campaign manager, wrote to New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley. “In accordance with this guidance, Biden for President will refrain from submitting a Declaration of Candidacy for the Primary ahead of Friday’s candidate filing deadline for the Primary.”
MY RESPONSE TO BIDEN DECISION:
“The reality is that Joe Biden will win the NH FITN Primary in January, win renomination in Chicago and will be re-elected next November. NH voters know and trust Joe Biden that’s why he is leading Trump in NH by double digits.” #nhpolitics
— Raymond Buckley 🇺🇸🏳️🌈🇮🇱 (@ChairmanBuckley) October 24, 2023
“The reality is that Joe Biden will win the NH [First In The Nation] Primary in January, win renomination in Chicago and will be re-elected next November. NH voters know and trust Joe Biden that’s why he is leading Trump in NH by double digits,” Buckley wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday.
Buckley had previously opposed the DNC’s decision in December, writing that the “[t]he DNC did not give New Hampshire the first-in-the-nation primary and it is not [their’s] to take away…we will be holding our primary first,” in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. State law in New Hampshire automatically reschedules the presidential primary ahead of any other state if their dates change.
New Hampshire’s replacement from atop the primary schedule was done at Biden’s behest in order to allegedly place states more favorable to his candidacy ahead on the schedule, enabling him to more easily secure the nomination, according to a letter he wrote to the DNC that was published in December 2022.
“We must ensure that voters of color have a voice in choosing our nominee much earlier in the process and throughout the entire early window,” Biden wrote.
New Hampshire’s population is 92.6% white, while South Carolina’s is 68.9%, with African-Americans constituting 26.3% of the latter state’s population compared to just 2% in the former, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The dispute between the state and the DNC has led the party to threaten that it will not seat delegates elected by the state at the Democratic National Convention in 2024, according to CBS News.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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