Southern Democrats urge DNC to hold first 2028 primary in SC

Democratic leaders from several southern states on Thursday asked the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to ensure that the Palmetto State would hold the first party primary of the 2028 presidential cycle.

South Carolina is a Republican bastion and hasn't supported a Democrat for president in decades. The party's sole Democratic member of the House is Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C. Nevertheless, the state is also home to a large black population, which forms much of the core Democratic coalition.

The party chairs from Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and West Virginia jointly urged DNC Chairman Ken Martin to affirm South Carolina's first-in-the-nation status in an upcoming party meeting to set the order for presidential primaries, The Hill reported.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., asserted that the practice of allowing South Carolina to go first was a way for black voters to make their voices heard in the process.

“South Carolina’s first-in-the-nation status is not a procedural privilege; it is a hard-won recognition that the Democratic Party’s coalition must be centered, not assumed,” he said. “To remove or diminish South Carolina’s standing in the primary calendar would send precisely the wrong message to Black voters and to every voter who has been told their voice does not matter until the outcome is already decided,” he said.

The request comes in the wake of a major redistricting ruling from the Supreme Court that has triggered a wave of map redraws across the South to eliminate race-based majority-minority districts. South Carolina, notably, declined to follow suit by eliminating Clyburn's district.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent for Just the News. Follow him on X.