Iowa Democrats said they would fix the problems that torpedoed their last competitive presidential caucus. Nevada Democrats pointed to their state’s large population of politically crucial Latino voters. And Delaware Democrats said their small state was easy to drive across.
Democrats in 12 states have applied to kick off the party’s 2028 presidential primary contest, pushing arguments about race, geography, size, diversity, the rural-urban divide and their relative status as battlegrounds, according to copies of hundreds of pages of application materials reviewed by The New York Times.
The Democratic National Committee, which will decide the order, has said that one state from each of four regions will hold nominating contests in the so-called early window, the month before Super Tuesday. A bonus fifth state could also be selected. State parties in these places applied:
West: Nevada and New Mexico
South: Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia
Midwest: Illinois, Iowa and Michigan
East: New Hampshire and Delaware
Some state parties — including in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada and North Carolina — wrote in their applications that they hoped to be placed at the very front of the line.
Applications ranged in length. North Carolina’s was a crisp nine pages, while Iowa’s stretched for 120 pages.
And there were some subtle regional digs: Delaware Democrats took aim at New Hampshire, arguing that their small state had grown faster and was more racially diverse than the heavily white Granite State, the longtime home of the first-in-the-nation primary election. New Hampshire Democrats seemed aware they would face such criticism, arguing that their state was growing more diverse.
Several state parties included letters of support from influential figures and groups, including Planned Parenthood and local business organizations. Two states — Michigan and Illinois — offered support from their governors, Gretchen Whitmer and JB Pritzker, who are seen as potential 2028 presidential candidates.
Even Ken Burns, the award-winning documentary filmmaker, jumped into the fray with a letter offering his support for New Hampshire, where he has lived for decades.
The Rules and Bylaws Committee of the D.N.C. had set a deadline of Friday for states to apply. The panel’s members are set to meet this month in Puerto Rico to discuss the applicants. Here are the highlights of the pitches:
West
Democrats in Nevada made a case that their state would be the best proving ground for a tough general election because it would force presidential primary candidates to appeal to Latino voters.
“We cannot afford to have overwhelmingly college-educated, white, or less competitive states kick off the process of selecting our party’s nominee,” they wrote.
Nevada has competition from New Mexico, whose Democrats argued that their state is cheap and racially diverse, with large numbers of Latino and Native American voters.
The state has also bucked national trends, its Democrats wrote. While most rural states with lower percentages of college-educated voters have become more Republican, New Mexico has remained deeply blue.
“New Mexico provides the Democratic Party with a low-cost, high-value test of general-election readiness,” state Democrats wrote.
South
South Carolina, which former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. moved to the first position for the 2024 election, is vying to keep that coveted slot. Democrats there called the state “a proven, disciplined, and consequential first test of presidential candidates” and pointed to its large numbers of Black voters and Black women in particular, “who are among the most consistent and influential voters in Democratic general elections nationwide.”
The knock on South Carolina has been that the state is too Republican to hold such a central role in elevating the next Democratic presidential nominee.
North Carolina suggested that it was central to the Democratic Party’s future nationwide, noting that partisan gerrymandering of congressional lines in the battleground state before the 2024 election helped give Republicans their current narrow House majority.
“Putting North Carolina first isn’t just a 2 year strategy,” the party wrote. “It’s a 20 year strategy.”
One hurdle is that Republican lawmakers in North Carolina would need to approve shifting the primary date. Democratic officials wrote that their conversations with Republicans had been “limited” but that there had been “positive indications.”
Georgia would also need Republican approval. Democrats there made a different argument about the viability of moving the primary date: “Georgia Democrats are confident that Georgia will elect a Democratic Governor and Secretary of State,” they wrote of the 2026 elections.
Tennessee’s plea was more about transforming the solidly red state to make it more blue.
“On its face, Tennessee would seem like an odd choice,” state Democrats wrote. Yet an early spot “could and would be the single most impactful and organic data investment in our state voter file ever.”
And Virginia positioned itself as a racially diverse testing ground for candidates and a state that knows how to hold elections — since it does so every year.
“Virginia is never ‘spinning up’ an election apparatus. We are always operating,” state Democrats wrote.
Midwest
Iowa, which had held its caucuses first for 50 years until 2024, argued that its should not be excluded because of its disastrous 2020 caucuses, when a technology meltdown and widespread errors put in question the results.
The state Democratic Party, it wrote in its application, “will report the total number of presidential preferences from caucus-goers and not require extensive math from precinct chairs. Additionally, we will not use any kind of phone application for reporting results.”
Illinois Democrats tried to downplay their state’s solidly blue status, noting that a Republican won an election for governor of the state as recently as 2014. “There is a common misconception that Illinois can be taken for granted,” they wrote.
Michigan, which moved into the first month of voting in 2024, is hoping to stay there. Unlike Iowa or Illinois, the state is a perennial battleground. In its pitch, it argued that no other state could “lay claim to playing as significant a role in a winning national coalition for Democrats.”
East
New Hampshire, which held the first-in-the-nation primary election for roughly a century, argued that it remained uniquely suited for the role despite its lack of racial diversity.
“New Hampshire should go first not simply because of tradition,” state Democrats wrote. “There is no other state that better meets the efficiency, rigorousness, and fairness criteria needed in our presidential nominating process.”
The state party also wrote that the state is cheap, accessible and small, served by a single television station that reaches nearly all voters, and that candidates there must test their mettle with retail campaigning.
Only one other Eastern state applied. Delaware was explicit about drawing demographic contrasts with New Hampshire, pointing to its “substantially larger Black population,” “greater racial and ethnic diversity overall” and “higher share of women voters.”
Delaware also bragged that its small size made stumping easy. “Driving the entire length of the state takes about two hours,” state Democrats wrote.
Reid J. Epstein is a Times reporter covering campaigns and elections from Washington.
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