President Biden has told Democrats they should give up “restrictive” caucuses and prioritize racial diversity as they rank which states will top their Presidential primary calendar.
In a letter Thursday to the rule-making arm of the DNC, Biden did not mention any states by name. However, he has told Democrats he wants South Carolina moved to the first-place position, three sources familiar with the President’s recommendations told the Associated Press.
Several states have been duking it out over which should go first in the Democratic primary pecking order, especially since party leaders are not happy with Iowa of late. The state whose caucuses have historically been first in the Presidential primary season for both parties finds itself on the defensive after a fiasco involving an untested app used to tabulate results in 2020 led to significant delays and raised security concerns.
That, in turn, highlighted Iowa’s scant racial diversity, leading Democrats toward replacing it as the first Presidential vote ever since.
“For decades, Black voters in particular have been the backbone of the Democratic Party but have been pushed to the back of the early primary process,” Biden wrote in a letter to the DNC on personal stationery that did not carry the White House seal. “We rely on these voters in elections but have not recognized their importance in our nominating calendar. It is time to stop taking these voters for granted, and time to give them a louder and earlier voice in the process.”
It was Biden’s victory in the 2020 South Carolina primary—with the endorsement of Congressional Black Caucus elder statesman Rep. James Clyburn—that positioned him to go on to win nomination as the Democratic candidate for President.
Many members of the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee responsible for putting together the 2024 primary calendar had been waiting for President Biden to weigh in before deciding on the order.
