Over at FHQ:
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) formally adopted its rules for the 2028 presidential nomination process last weekend. That included the calendar rules that set the lineup of states granted waivers to conduct primaries in the early window prior to Super Tuesday. And while much of the Saturday general session of the DNC in Austin was devoted to speakers from each of the six states selected to fill out the early calendar, it was a day that was ultimately not full of surprises when it came to the rules. Outside of one tweak unrelated to the calendar, the full party adopted exactly what the Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC) passed last month in Washington, DC.
In other words, before and after the DNC vote in Austin, Iowa and New Hampshire were both on the outside looking in. Well, Iowa was entirely outside the early window anyway. New Hampshire, on the other hand, was, for the second cycle running, reserved a seat at the early calendar table, but outside of its preferred position at the head.
Understandably, that drew some reactions back home in the Hawkeye and Granite states. And they ran the gamut from disappointment with the decision to outright defiance. But the pattern in the backlash was noteworthy even in these early days of the 2028 cycle. After all, the calendar rules are but one step of this process. Now that the DNC rules are in place, the states and state parties have their chance to react to and within (or outside!?!) those rules and will over the course of the coming year or so. And early though it may be to think about those possibilities and their ramifications, as Yogi Berra once famously said, “It gets late early out there.”
Below the fold, FHQ will analyze the reactions, contextualize them and discuss Iowa and New Hampshire in the Democrats’ new super penalty era.
Let’s dig in…