American and South Carolina flags displayed together, symbolizing the state's primary role.South Carolina Beats Nevada for 2028 Primary, Pitting Black vs. Latino Voters
Intra-Party Split Detected
Democratic factions clashed over which early state should lead the 2028 primary calendar: Black leaders and Southern Democrats backed South Carolina, while Latino leaders and Nevada/Southwest Democrats pushed for Nevada; New Hampshire and Iowa Democrats also objected to being pushed out and may defy the new calendar.
Left says
- •South Carolina's selection rewards Black voters, the party's most loyal base, with recognition long overdue after decades of Iowa and New Hampshire's overwhelmingly white electorates dominating the calendar.
- •The timing carries added weight given the Supreme Court's recent ruling weakening the Voting Rights Act, making it symbolically important to affirm Black voters' political power.
- •The debate reflects a genuine, good-faith effort to modernize the primary calendar to better reflect the party's diverse coalition, not just Black voters but Latino and working-class voters too, even if only one state could go first.
- •Party elders like Al Sharpton and Donna Brazile framed this as a matter of respect and historical justice for a community that fought for the right to vote and has consistently delivered for Democrats.
Right says
- •The process exposes the Democratic Party's internal reliance on identity-group bargaining, with leaders explicitly pitting Black voters against Latino voters to decide the outcome rather than focusing on broader electability or swing-state strategy.
- •Sidelining Iowa and New Hampshire abandons decades of tradition and a system that gave retail politics and lesser-funded candidates a fair shot before big media markets took over.
- •Comments like South Carolina's party chair saying elevating Nevada would tell Black voters 'you matter less than brown voters' show how racially transactional the selection process has become.
- •The move could be seen as tailored to benefit specific establishment-favored candidates like Kamala Harris, who performs well with Black voters, raising questions about whether the calendar was engineered for a preferred outcome rather than neutral fairness.
Common Take
High Consensus- The DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee voted 26-19-4 to place South Carolina first, Nevada second, and New Hampshire third, pending full DNC approval in August.
- The decision removes Iowa from the early-voting window entirely, ending its decades-long role as the traditional leadoff state.
- Both Black and Latino voters are recognized as core, indispensable constituencies for the Democratic Party's electoral success.
- New Mexico, Michigan, and Virginia will also hold early contests before Super Tuesday, expanding the number of diverse early states beyond just one.
The Arguments
Left argues
South Carolina's selection recognizes Black voters as the party's most loyal base, correcting decades of overreliance on Iowa and New Hampshire, two overwhelmingly white states, to kick off the nominating process.
Right counters
Rewarding loyalty with procedural favoritism is still identity-based horse-trading; if electability and swing-state relevance mattered most, the calendar would prioritize battlegrounds rather than a state Democrats haven't won statewide in decades.
Right argues
The explicit framing by South Carolina's party chair, that elevating Nevada would tell Black voters 'you matter less than brown voters,' reveals how transactional and racially calculated the decision-making process has become, rather than being about neutral fairness or electoral strategy.
Left counters
Naming the stakes plainly isn't the same as creating them; Black voters' outsized loyalty and turnout for Democrats is a real, quantifiable asset, and acknowledging that fact openly is more honest than the old system's unspoken assumption that white early states deserved primacy by default.
Right argues
Sidelining Iowa and New Hampshire abandons a longstanding tradition that gave retail politics and underfunded, lesser-known candidates a genuine shot before big media markets and money took over the race.
Left counters
That tradition also meant two of the whitest states in the country got to filter the field for a party whose base is far more diverse, and retail politics can still thrive in a small state like South Carolina just as it did in Iowa.
Left argues
The timing carries added symbolic weight given the Supreme Court's recent ruling weakening the Voting Rights Act, making it important for the party to affirm Black voters' political power precisely when it's under legal threat.
Right counters
Using a primary calendar decision to send a symbolic message conflates two different problems, voting rights enforcement and internal party scheduling, and risks looking like a substitute for substantive action rather than a genuine remedy.
Right argues
The move conveniently favors Kamala Harris, who polls well with Black voters and is eyeing a 2028 run, raising legitimate questions about whether the calendar was engineered to benefit an establishment-favored candidate rather than decided on neutral principles.
Left counters
Every early-state decision in history has incidentally helped some candidates over others, including Iowa and New Hampshire's traditional advantage for retail-focused moderates; that doesn't mean the underlying rationale, testing candidates with the party's most loyal voters, is illegitimate.
Challenge Questions
These questions target genuine internal contradictions — meant to provoke honest reflection.
Right asks Left
“If diversity and representativeness are the stated goals, why does the new calendar still exclude larger, more diverse swing states in favor of South Carolina, a state Democrats have not won in a presidential general election in decades?”
Left asks Right
“If the objection is to identity-based reasoning in selecting early states, how is invoking Iowa and New Hampshire's 'tradition' not itself a defense of a status quo that was built on those same states' overwhelmingly white demographics being treated as the default representative electorate?”
Outlier Report
Left Fringe
Figures like Al Sharpton and Donna Brazile represent an emotionally resonant but relatively narrow slice (roughly 15-20%) of the left that frames this explicitly around racial restitution; most rank-and-file Democrats likely see it more pragmatically as party strategy rather than moral reckoning.
Right Fringe
Commentators like those at outlets amplifying South Carolina chair Christale Spain's 'you matter less than brown voters' quote (e.g., some Washington Times/Fox commentary) push a narrative that Democrats are fundamentally racially divisive; this hardline framing represents maybe 20-25% of the right, with many Republicans simply viewing it as Democratic infighting rather than a deep indictment.
Noise Assessment
High noise ratio — this is largely an insider DNC process story with limited direct impact on most Americans' daily lives, so media framing and quotes from party elites are amplified far beyond genuine grassroots public engagement or polling data on the topic.
Sources (10)
<p><a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/12/07/south-carolina-democrats-influencers-primary" target="_blank">South Carolina</a> has been preliminarily tapped to hold the first Democratic presidential primary of 2028, as a key panel of party leaders picked the Palmetto State over Nevada on Friday after a contentious, racially fraught debate.</p><p><strong>Why it matters:</strong> It's a coup for Black leaders who argued the party's most loyal voters — represented by South Carolina's large Black population — deserved to have the first chance to weigh in on who should be Democrats' next presidential nominee.</p><hr /><ul><li>The vote by the Democratic National Committee's powerful Rules & Bylaws panel has to be ratified by the full DNC. </li></ul><p><strong>Driving the news: </strong>The debate exposed <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/12/07/south-carolina-democrats-influencers-primary" target="_blank">divisions</a> across race, ideology and region, pitting Black Democrats against Latino Democrats, progressives against moderates, and Democrats from the South, Southwest and Northeast against one another.</p><ul><li>Many Latino leaders pushed for Nevada to be the first state to vote, citing that state's large number of Latino and working-class voters — two other groups crucial to Democrats winning elections.</li><li>The first state to vote in the primary typically plays an outsized role in determining the presidential nominee — and is lavished with attention, media coverage and cash.</li></ul><p><strong>Zoom in:</strong> Some members of the rules panel argued that South Carolina should hold the first primary because it's a diverse, small state that serves as a measure of a Democratic candidate's strength with Black voters.</p><ul><li>But until Friday morning, South Carolina was neck-and-neck with Nevada.</li><li>Ultimately, 26 members supported South Carolina, 19 voted for Nevada and 4 backed New Hampshire for the first-place position.</li></ul><p><strong>In the hours </strong>before the committee gathered publicly this week,<strong> </strong>South Carolina Democrats and their allies argued that Black voters would feel betrayed if the state weren't picked to vote first. The state led off the 2024 primary season after a push by then-President Biden.</p><ul><li>The Rev. Al Sharpton, the African American civil rights leader, said publicly that "to turn around now and push South Carolina to the back of the line would be a slap in the face to the very voters who've kept this party alive."</li><li>Christale Spain, chair of South Carolina's Democratic Party, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/22/us/politics/south-carolina-nevada-democrats-2028-presidential-calendar.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share" target="_blank">told The New York Times</a>: "If Nevada gets elevated over South Carolina, it would be because of their Latino vote. So you would then be telling Black voters that you matter less than brown voters. And I refuse to believe that our party wants to send any type of message like that."</li></ul><p><strong>After her state cinched </strong>the No. 1 position, Spain told Axios that South Carolina won the debate in part because it has "experience doing it" and the flexibility to control its primary date.</p><ul><li>Asked if her and Sharpton's remarks were a factor, she said they "made people realize the optics."</li><li>"I think once folks start thinking about that and realizing, I think that it probably did help some folks."</li></ul><p><strong>Several Democrats cited </strong>the Supreme Court's recent decision weakening the Voting Rights Act as a key reason to support South Carolina.</p><ul><li>Spain also said South Carolina won the backing of some former backers of New Hampshire in the closing stage of the debate — and more were prepared to support the state if needed.</li></ul><p><strong>Inside the room: </strong>Several members of the DNC panel gave emotional remarks during Friday's meeting.</p><ul><li>In a rousing speech, longtime DNC member Donna Brazile talked about voting rights and Black voters. Speaking in part about her own family members, she said, "I watched as they waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited until they got the right to vote."</li><li>"There's no reason why my nieces and nephews and family should not have that right. We earned it."</li><li>Another DNC member, Jane Kleeb, said that in 2020 Black voters "saved our entire country from Donald Trump."</li></ul><p><strong>Zoom out: </strong>Former Vice President Kamala Harris could benefit from the decision to put South Carolina at the top of the calendar.</p><ul><li>Harris, who's eyeing a third presidential run, is leading the potential 2028 Democratic field among Black voters.</li></ul><p><strong>What's next:</strong> Despite getting snubbed by the Democratic panel, New Hampshire — and perhaps Iowa — could go rogue and try to hold the party's contests.</p><ul><li>New Hampshire state law says it must hold the first primary in the country, and some Iowa Democrats have <a href="https://www.notus.org/2028-election/iowa-democrats-rogue-2028-caucus" target="_blank">threatened</a> to run an unapproved caucus to maintain that state's status early in the calendar.</li><li>But Democrats recently put <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2026/06/26/national-democrats-ok-new-penalties-for-states-defying-2028-calendar/90701221007/?gnt-cfr=1&gca-cat=p&gca-uir=false&gca-epti=z11xx44p118650l002350c118650u002944e005450v11xx44&gca-ft=256&gca-ds=sophi" target="_blank">strict rules</a> in place to punish state parties that cut in line.</li></ul><p><em>This story has been updated with comments in reaction to the panel's vote.</em></p>
There has not been a truly open Democratic presidential primary — without an incumbent president or a dominant frontrunner — in almost two decades.
South Carolina is poised to hold the first Democratic presidential nominating contest in 2028 after the Democratic National Committee’s powerful rules committee voted to keep the state at the front of the line.
Democrats chose South Carolina for the first 2028 presidential primary, then Nevada, prioritizing Black and Latino voters. New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan and Virginia also hold early contests.
South Carolina has long been the first Southern contest and has served as a key test of candidates' support among Black voters.
The state edged Nevada to be first, marking a major shift from past primary schedules
Every week political cartoonists throughout the country and across the political spectrum apply their ink-stained skills to capture the foibles, memes, hypocrisies and other head-slapping events in the world of politics. The fruits of these labors are hundreds of cartoons that entertain and enrage readers of all political stripes. Here's an offering of the best of this week's crop, picked fresh off the Toonosphere. Edited by Matt Wuerker.
South Carolina is expected to be the first state in the 2028 Democratic presidential primary contest after the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) rules and bylaws committee voted Friday to approve it as the initial battleground. The committee’s recommendation will now go to the entire Democratic National Committee, which will consider the matter in Austin, Texas,…
South Carolina is on the verge of becoming the first stop on the 2028 Democratic nominating calendar, followed by Nevada and New Hampshire.