AUSTIN, Texas \u2013 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. <\/p>\n
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). <\/p>\n
The Democratic National Committee is scheduled to approve the calendar Saturday at a meeting in Texas. <\/p>\n
South Carolina\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t surprise anyone as a result of it being the largest and most diverse committee that we got the most diverse calendar in our party\u2019s history,\u201d DNC Chairman Ken Martin, who has championed the calendar, told a gathering of the party\u2019s Black Caucus this week. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey 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,\u201d said party strategist Karen Finney, who has worked on multiple winning and losing presidential campaigns. \u201cWhoever survives will be battle tested.\u201d<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese states look more like the country,\u201d as a whole, he said, \u201cwhereas Iowa and New Hampshire don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nonwhite voters claim top billing<\/p>\n
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\u2019s large Black population, which can yield more than half the state\u2019s Democratic primary electorate. <\/p>\n
With Nevada and New Mexico following, that will likely require that candidates also court more Latino voters long before voting starts.<\/p>\n
Shifting from Iowa and New Hampshire does not mean little-known candidates can’t catch fire like Pete Buttigieg did in Iowa and New Hampshire in 2020, when he was a 37-year-old former mayor. They just won\u2019t be able to do it with an almost entirely white audience.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you can\u2019t go to every part of this country and make your case, you should not be running for president,\u201d Finney said.<\/p>\n
The progressive vs. establishment dynamics may shift<\/p>\n
There\u2019s disagreement over how Democrats\u2019 split between progressives and mainstream liberals may \u2014 or may not \u2014 surface in the calendar. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think our primary voters up north are probably a little different than primary voters in South Carolina,\u201d said Boyd Brown, a former DNC member from South Carolina. \u201cIt\u2019s not the woke ideologies that we just can\u2019t get away from\u201d in other places.<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 twice rejecting Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in favor of Clinton and Biden.<\/p>\n
But, she said, \u201cSouthern Black voters are more progressive than they\u2019re given credit for\u201d on policy but also \u201crealists\u201d about what\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cLiving through Jim Crow and other oppressive structures will force you to take that approach,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Smith said that South Carolina leading off \u2014 with many Southern states following on Super Tuesday soon after the early slate concludes \u2014 means that progressives will have to take the time to listen and then tailor their messages.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of Black voters don\u2019t necessarily see themselves in the ideas and arguments that progressives put forward,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Unions get a spotlight<\/p>\n
The slate covers three major organized labor buckets. <\/p>\n
Nevada has the service industry unions because of Las Vegas; Michigan has the auto industry and associated manufacturing support industries; Virginia is home to more federal workers than any other state. <\/p>\n
\u201cLabor is still so important,\u201d Dean said. <\/p>\n
Beyond seeking members’ votes, campaigns and the party look to organized labor for help in spreading Democrats’ message to voters and getting people to the polls. <\/p>\n
More scheduling efficiency for candidates<\/p>\n
Campaigns struggle to balance many demands: meeting voters on the ground, raising money and travel logistics. As a result, some places, such as Nevada, have gotten short shrift in the past because candidates, most from the eastern half of the country, have concluded the time investment isn\u2019t worth it. <\/p>\n
An expanded calendar offers more clustering opportunities. <\/p>\n
A Western swing could hit two early states \u2014 Nevada and New Mexico \u2014 plus a fundraising stop in California, which is rich with Democratic donors. A South Carolina trip could mean fundraisers and public appearances in Atlanta, Charlotte and Raleigh. Virginia offers proximity to donors and national TV studios in Washington; the same options are available by adding a New York City stop on the way to New Hampshire. <\/p>\n
Bre Maxwell is a DNC member from South Carolina who said the state\u2019s smaller size and lower media costs are a financial equalizer, allowing not only the best-funded candidates to have an impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can campaign from the top to the bottom in a day,\u201d Maxwell said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about primaries \u2014 with a clear look to November<\/p>\n
Of the six states, all but South Carolina are competitive general election states. That means that even before Super Tuesday, Democrats \u2014 including the eventual nominee \u2014 will have spent significant time and resources in battlegrounds worth a combined 43 Electoral College votes. That\u2019s not insignificant on the way to the 270 needed to win.<\/p>\n
TV ads and news coverage can spill over, as well. Markets targeting parts of South Carolina also reach portions of North Carolina and Georgia.<\/p>\n
After all, Brown said, the point is to put a Democrat in the White House.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a social or a debate club. It is a political party,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press reporter Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, also contributed. <\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2013 Democrats’ process for picking a 2028 presidential nominee will likely kick off in states where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,7536,74975,142470,145,288,26948,142474,24423,142472,37940,142471,142473,287,7533],"class_list":["post-407186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-barack-obama","tag-bernie-sanders","tag-boyd-brown","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-hillary-clinton","tag-howard-dean","tag-joe-biden","tag-karen-finney","tag-ken-martin","tag-nina-smith","tag-pete-buttigieg","tag-politics","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}