The Democratic Party has approved a significant overhaul of its 2028 presidential primary schedule as it seeks to win back the White House. During a meeting on Saturday in Austin, Texas, members of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) voted to adjust the order of states that will have the first say in selecting the party's presidential nominee.
South Carolina will again be the first official primary state, with its vote scheduled for January 22, 2028. Nevada will follow on February 1, and New Hampshire on February 8. New Mexico, Michigan, and Virginia will round out the early-voting states later that month.
The new calendar formalizes a shift that began in the 2024 cycle, when national Democrats also placed South Carolina at the front of the line. The reordering gives more influence to states with greater racial diversity, aiming to better reflect the party's key voters.
However, the plan has faced controversy in the past. In 2024, New Hampshire Democratic leaders defied party leadership by holding a state-run primary ahead of the party's first vote in South Carolina, citing state law that requires their primary to be first in the nation. Iowa also objected to being downgraded, warning it could send the wrong signal to rural voters—a group that often feels overlooked and tends to lean Republican.
Supporters of the change argue it makes the party's primaries more representative of the U.S. population. South Carolina's population is about a quarter Black, while Nevada and New Mexico have Latino or Hispanic populations of 31% and 49%, respectively. All three states will top the 2028 calendar.
DNC Chair Ken Martin praised the change on social media, writing: "These states reflect the diversity of America and will position our nominee to be best prepared to win back the White House in 2028."
Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, who led the DNC from 2005 to 2009, told the Associated Press that the new calendar creates a more representative nominating process: "These states look more like America, while Iowa and New Hampshire do not."
Still, there is uncertainty about the impact of the new schedule on the party's internal contest between progressives and more moderate factions. Michigan—one of the states gaining influence—chose progressive Abdul El-Sayed as its Senate nominee earlier this month, prompting some analysts to speculate that the battleground state could boost progressives' sway within the party. But other prioritized states tend to be more moderate, such as South Carolina, which favored Joe Biden over progressive rivals Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 primary.
Here is the full list of the six states that will hold the first Democratic primaries in 2028:
- South Carolina: January 22, 2028
- Nevada: February 1, 2028
- New Hampshire: February 8, 2028
- New Mexico: February 15, 2028
- Michigan: February 22, 2028
- Virginia: February 29, 2028
