Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised New Hampshire Democrats for defying the Democratic National Committee and keeping the Granite State primary the first in the nation.
As Fox News reported, last Friday marked the deadline for New Hampshire to meet the DNC’s demand that it follow the national party’s new presidential nominating calendar. In early February, the committee overwhelmingly passed a 2024 presidential primary calendar that bumps Iowa, the first-in-the-nation caucus state, and first primary state New Hampshire behind South Carolina.
The Palmetto State, which in many ways saved Joe Biden’s bid for the presidency in 2020, will kick off the nominating schedule as part of the Democratic Party’s quest to open the contest in a more diverse state than the predominantly white Iowa and New Hampshire.
Kennedy Jr. is far from alone in accusing the DNC of rigging the process, with critics accusing the Democratic Party of preferring a coronation to a competition.
Biden came in a dismal 5th place in New Hampshire’s 2020 Democratic Party primary. He finished fourth in Iowa.
The DNC does not want a repeat of 2020 for the party’s standard-bearer, an incumbent who likes to think of himself as a unifier.
“I thoroughly support New Hampshire’s century-old status as the first primary state and the political culture that has grown up around it,” Kennedy Jr., son of the late U.S. Sen. Bobby Kennedy (D-NY), said in a statement.
“Everyone knows the real reason the DNC made the change,” Kennedy Jr. said. “The people of South Carolina didn’t ask for it. No, it is simply another undemocratic attempt to rig the primary process in favor of their anointed candidate, Joe Biden.”
The New Hampshire primary is expected to occur on January 23, 2024. By state law, it has to. Iowa has scheduled its caucuses for January 15. New Hampshire statute demands the Granite State hold the first presidential primary of the nominating calendar eight days after the first caucus.
But the DNC doesn’t want either of the states in the first position.
Iowa Democrats have agreed to a kind of hybrid caucus, a mail-in affair where would-be caucus-goers send in their candidate preferences with the results being released on the Hawkeye State’s new caucus date.
But state law requires Iowa hold the first caucus of the presidential election cycle. Governor Kim Reynolds and her fellow Republicans who control the state Legislature have nixed mail-in ballots, requiring the parties follow state law and hold in-person caucuses as they have for some 50 years.
Boston Globe political reporter and NBC News political analyst James Pindell told Meet the Press NOW’s Chuck Todd last week that the New Hampshire primary is going to happen and it’s going to happen first no matter what Biden and the DNC think.
Will Biden’s name appear on that ballot?
“Likely no,” Pindell said.
Friday was the deadline for the New Hampshire Democratic Party to submit plans to the DNC on how it will change state law to end the Granite State’s first primary status and allow for early voting. State Democrats don’t want that.
Ultimately, it’s not up to them. Republicans control the state’s legislature, known as the General Court of New Hampshire, and the governor’s office. The party in control makes the rules.
Pindell said on September 14, the DNC will likely rule that the state party is not in compliance, meaning Biden will not put his name on the New Hampshire primary ballot.
“The New Hampshire primary will always be first,” the reporter said, “but will the New Hampshire primary matter?”
Kennedy Jr. said he will continue campaigning in New Hampshire in defiance of the DNC’s “scheme.” He said he is showing surprising strength in South Carolina.
“The DNC seems to have forgotten the purpose of the modern primary system to begin with, which was to replace backroom crony politics with a transparent democratic process,” said the environmental activist and outspoken critic of the COVID vaccines.
He said he is also showing surprising strength in South Carolina. A Fox News poll in mid-August found Kennedy Jr. polling at about 17 percent to Biden’s 64 percent. Self-help guru Marianne Williamson received about 9 percent of support from Democrat voters. In many polls, RFK Jr. lags Biden by 45 points or better, but he’s been generating enough support to give the incumbent some political heartburn.
“If the Biden campaign thinks they can win with administrative tricks and evasions, they will be in for a rude surprise in both New Hampshire and South Carolina,” Kennedy Jr. said.
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Robert Kennedy Jr.” by Robert Kennedy Jr.
