The Democratic National Committee (DNC) officially selected South Carolina on Saturday to serve as the first state to vote in the party's 2028 presidential primaries. The vote, held during the DNC's summer meeting in Austin, Texas, followed a preliminary decision made by the organization's Rules and Bylaws Committee in July.
The 2028 primary calendar will feature South Carolina in the lead position, followed by Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan, and Virginia. DNC Chair Ken Martin stated that the new schedule represents the party's values and is intended to help Democrats retake the White House in the 2028 general election. The DNC noted that this sequence allows the party to test candidates in an affordable and open field.
The decision follows a July dispute between South Carolina and Nevada over which state would hold the first-in-the-nation spot. This disagreement functioned as a proxy for competition between the party's Black and Latino voter bases. While South Carolina and Nevada sought the top position, New Hampshire also has a history of conflict with the national party over its primary date; in 2024, the state held its primary in January against DNC rules, resulting in the DNC refusing to seat New Hampshire's delegates that year.
Several potential 2028 presidential candidates have already visited South Carolina in recent months. These include Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), and California Governor Gavin Newsom. The DNC maintains that selecting the first state is a critical step in shaping the field of contenders before the general election.
Candidates seeking the nomination will be forced to concentrate their resources and staffing in South Carolina earlier than in other states. For the candidates, this means a concrete shift in how they allocate their campaign budgets and where they spend their time. For residents in the early states, this will result in a heavy volume of political advertisements, frequent candidate visits, and increased national news coverage starting well before the 2028 election year. The DNC's stated goal is to "battle-test" these candidates in a specific order to determine their viability before the national convention.
The move also sets a precedent for how the party manages internal demographic interests, as the DNC chose South Carolina over Nevada following a disagreement between the party's Black and Latino bases. Furthermore, the inclusion of New Hampshire as the third state follows a period of tension where the state's delegates were not seated in 2024 due to timing disputes. While the specific dates for these 2028 contests have not yet been released, the order is now codified, and the next steps will involve individual state governments setting their specific primary dates to align with or challenge this national party mandate.