NH's delegates for Biden will count in 2024. But will NH primary be first in 2028?

CONCORD — The Democratic National Committee voted to count New Hampshire’s delegates at the national convention this summer in Chicago on Tuesday, bringing what pundits say is an “inevitable” end to the long feud over the state’s first-in-the-nation primary.

Last year, the DNC announced South Carolina would be the first state to vote instead of New Hampshire, calling it an effort to have a more diverse state lead the way. New Hampshire refused to break tradition and held an unsanctioned primary (before South Carolina’s primary) where President Joe Biden’s name was absent from the ballot. But through a write-in effort led by Democrats in the state, Biden won anyways, garnering almost 64% of the vote.

On Tuesday, the co-chair of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee, Jim Roosevelt, said that “all of that is behind us now” at a meeting where the rule-making arm of the committee voted to reinstate New Hampshire’s delegates.

The vote came after the state party met on Saturday to ratify delegates in a “party-run delegate selection primary,” as directed by the DNC.

Political pundits said this outcome was the inevitable ending of the year’s drama.

“It’s a little bit of a reward for not embarrassing President Biden during the primary,” Southern New Hampshire University civic scholar Dean Spiliotes said, adding that the result is not unprecedented as parties usually try to smooth things over after these types of disagreements.

Plus, Biden may need New Hampshire’s electoral college votes in the November election.

“New Hampshire is a small state and a swing state,” said Chris Galdieri, a politics professor at Saint Anselm College. “I think given the state of the president’s polling and everything, they can’t really afford to put four electoral votes at risk just over this state party-national party conflict.”

Will New Hampshire be the first primary in 2028?

Granite State Democrats shouldn’t celebrate yet: the DNC’s decision doesn’t mean New Hampshire will be the first primary officially again in 2028.

On the one hand, Spiliotes said, the state “proved its mettle.”

“They’ve made a case that you don’t want to ignore New Hampshire,” said Galdieri. “This whole thing made it clear that New Hampshire just has no interest in changing its state law, simply because one of the national parties tells it to.”

But Dante Scala, an associate professor of political science at UNH, thinks that the way the DNC accepted the delegates — in a meeting over the weekend instead of by taking the results of the January primary — is telling.

“Ultimately, New Hampshire Democrats admitted that the first-in-the-nation primary was not a legitimate event,” Scala said. “That’s kind of what they conceded by holding a second event that would actually seat delegates.”

The election in 2028 will also be a much different race than this year, with open primaries on both the Democratic and Republican sides, warned the pundits.

“New Hampshire has been on the chopping block multiple times in the last several decades,” Spiliotes said. “It could be another very nasty fight over the schedule.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: DNC decision could affect 2028 New Hampshire primary: Elections