CONCORD, N.H. – On Wednesday, New Hampshire Democratic Party (NHDP) Chairman Ray Buckley responded to Democratic National Committee Chairman (DNC) Jaime Harrison, stating that DNC demands relating to the First in the Nation (FITN) Presidential Primary were not reasonable and could only harm Democrats within New Hampshire.
The DNC’s demands to allow the NHDP to participate in early nominating contests for the 2024 Democratic Presidential Nomination required that the State of New Hampshire remove its state law requiring that New Hampshire go at least one week before any comparable contest as well as expand early-access voting.
Although Buckley says he understands and shares the wishes of the DNC to elevate more diverse voices in the nominating process, he said that the DNC’s demands cannot be met and that New Hampshire was the only state among those seeking early nominating contests to change its voting laws.
In the letter responding to the demands, Buckley made three points.
The first point focused on New Hampshire’s tradition of retail politics and the ability for unknown candidates to make a mark they cannot anywhere else.
Then Buckley noted that New Hampshire’s Republican governor and state legislature have already indicated that they will not comply with the demands and that those demands will only push independent voters away from supporting Democrats. He also noted that New Hampshire has higher voter turnout than other early nominating states, coming in with almost 10 percent more voter turnout in the 2020 General Election than the state chosen by the DNC to replace New Hampshire on the nominating calendar: South Carolina.
Lastly, Buckley noted that even though elections in New Hampshire are often close, Democrats in New Hampshire have won in the last five presidential elections, eight of the last 13 gubernatorial elections, four of the last five U.S. Senate elections and sixteen of the last eighteen U.S. House elections.
“It is our hope that the people of New Hampshire are not penalized by arbitrary and unfair requirements placed on them by the DNC, and that these requirements do not punish our Democratic delegation and President Biden in the elections to come,” Buckley concluded. “We look forward to working with you to find a solution that honors the spirit of President Biden’s vision for a diverse, thoughtful Democratic primary process.”
