The new calendar for the 2028 primaries that Democrats finalized on Saturday will dramatically shake up the race for the party’s next presidential nomination.
On the last day of its annual summer meeting, the Democratic National Committee approved a primary schedule that replaces Iowa and New Hampshire, the small and preponderantly white states that held the first contests for nearly 50 years, with two racially diverse battlegrounds: South Carolina and Nevada.
Under the new calendar, South Carolina, in late January 2028, and Nevada, in early February, will kick off the race for the party’s next presidential nomination. New Hampshire, New Mexico, and then Michigan and Virginia will hold the other early contests through February 2028 before the remaining states start voting in March.
Democrats are adopting this new calendar at a time when their progressive and centrist wings are wrestling for control of the party’s direction this year through the greatest concentration of hard-fought primaries in the party’s modern history. All these battles between left and center offer a clear signal that Democrats will face a monumental internal competition for the biggest prize: the party’s 2028 presidential nod.
