Democrats adopt 2028 calendar, pushing back Iowa and New Hampshire in favor of more diverse states

By Fredreka Schouten, CNN

Austin, Texas (CNN) — Democrats on Saturday adopted a 2028 presidential primary schedule that moves states with sought-after diverse populations to the front of a calendar that will shape their party’s fight to win the White House.

Democratic National Committee members gave final approval to six early voting states, with South Carolina, which has a substantial Black population, continuing to kick off the party’s nominating contests on January 22, 2028.

Nevada, a western presidential battleground, will follow on February 1. The four other early voting states are New Hampshire on February 8, New Mexico on February 15, Michigan on February 22 and Virginia on February 29. The calendar removes Iowa, a traditional bellweather state for candidates, from the early lineup.

In choosing to include Nevada and New Mexico in the early contests, the party has frontloaded the calendar with states that have large contingents of Latino voters, a group that President Donald Trump made inroads with during the 2024 presidential election.

In an interview with CNN, DNC Chair Ken Martin hailed the calendar as “the most diverse” in the party’s history.

“It’s going to battle-test our nominee with key parts of our coalition and key parts of the country in a way that we’ve never seen before,” he said.

The vote, on the final day of the DNC’s summer meeting, comes amid a midterm primary election season that has seen Democratic voters swing between progressive insurgents and moderate candidates — an internal struggle over the party’s direction that likely will loom over the crowded race for the White House.

Martin, who has faced criticism of his leadership of the DNC and stewardship of its finances, insisted that those ideological differences should not divide Democrats as they barrel toward this November’s high-stakes midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

“We are a big tent party,” the party chief told a gathering of the DNC women’s caucus on the opening day of the meeting Thursday. “And as long as I’m the chair, we’re going to continue to be.”

“Everybody is welcomed in this party,” Martin said to strong applause and hoots of approval from those assembled in a ballroom at a Hilton hotel in downtown Austin.

Before the vote, party officials from Iowa — which has long held the first nominating contest — made known their displeasure with the new calendar.

“We need a Midwest and a truly rural state to be among the first four states if we hope to build sustainable and lasting majorities that enact real and meaningful change,” Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart argued, urging DNC members to reject the calendar.

In the end, the new schedule passed on a voice vote, prompting sustained applause from the DNC crowd.

In addition to removing Iowa from the early state lineup, the committee members pushed New Hampshire deeper into the calendar, though that could also cause some internal party tensions. New Hampshire law requires the state’s top election official to schedule a primary at least seven days before another state carries out a primary.

Proponents of the new schedule say the calendar shake-up will help Democrats engage with the voters the party needs to win the presidential election. Nevada and Michigan both have large amounts of union members, and have substantial numbers of Black voters. And New Mexico’s inclusion puts a heavily Latino and rural border state into the mix.

“New Mexico looks a lot like the America Democrats need to win,” Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, a Democrat from the state, told CNN in an interview before the final vote. “When our presidential candidates come and listen to and inspire our Latino voters, Latinos across the country are going to understand that they are not being taken for granted.”

Martin defends his leadership

The DNC gathering occurred during a time of internal strife for the national party, with some members criticizing Martin’s management decisions and voicing alarm over the national party’s financial health.

The DNC has raised $207 million so far in this cycle — compared with nearly $279 million collected by the Republican National Committee, according to Federal Election Commission filings. But the Democratic committee lags far behind its Republican counterpart in available resources less than three months before the midterms. The DNC ended June with $2 million in debt, while the RNC had nearly $129 million remaining in the bank, FEC filings show.

Martin defended his record. During an interview with CNN, he pointed to a string of electoral victories for Democrats around the country in recent months as an outgrowth of his decision to invest in a permanent campaign infrastructure.

“By every objective measure on how to measure a party — and certainly party leadership — I’m succeeding,” Martin said.

Asked about a report in The New York Times that the party has urged vendors to delay sending invoices until after the midterms to help alleviate the cash crunch, Martin told CNN it was “standard practice” to renegotiate vendor contracts “to make sure you can meet cash flow and keep those relationships intact.”

Martin, who was elected chair early last year, has defenders in the DNC, including among state party chairs who have benefited from the national party’s new investments in their work.

(Last year, the DNC increased the amount it sends to state parties. Blue states began receiving an additional $5,000 a month, for a total of $17,500, and red states got a boost of $10,000 a month, for a total of $22,500.)

“There is no appetite for his removal,” Michael Kapp, a DNC member from California, said flatly. “He’s doing exactly what we asked him to do: building up state parties, investing in training and organizing programs, investing in partisan voter registration and not hoarding our cash.”

Daniele Monroe-Moreno, who chairs the Nevada Democratic Party, said Martin’s investment strategy is making a difference for Democrats in her state, who hope to flip the governor’s mansion and an open US House seat this fall.

“Money’s nice in the bank,” she said, “but I’d rather have the money on the ground doing the organizing.”

Over the course of the gathering, top Democrats exhorted members to stay focused on winning races this fall, rather than party infighting.

“Nobody sitting in Danville, Virginia, right now at their kitchen table worrying about paying their heating bills or groceries is worried about what’s going on at the DNC headquarters, I promise you all that,” former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who has also been a DNC chairman, told the gathering on Saturday.

“We need to be unified,” McAuliffe said.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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CNN’s Arit John contributed to this report.