The Democratic National Committee voted Tuesday to restore New Hampshire’s delegates ahead of this summer’s convention in Chicago, ending a months-long battle for the state’s 2024 presidential election.
“We’ve had tough weeks and months as a committee and as a national committee to get to this point, and I know New Hampshire has had tough weeks and months where we want to see some things. we saw didn’t happen,” Jim Roosevelt, co-chairman of the DNC’s Rules and Regulations Committee, said at Tuesday’s meeting. “As it is, it’s all behind us now. We have developed compliance with our rules and regulations.”
New Hampshire, which has a state law on the books requiring its first presidential primary, has refused to follow the new Democratic calendar, which moves South Carolina to the front of the line. As a result, President Joe Biden did not file to appear on the ballot for New Hampshire’s January 23 unauthorized primary, more than a week before the South Carolina contest. Biden still won New Hampshire with about 64% of the vote through the write-in campaign.
Jim Roosevelt, co-chair of the DNC’s Rules and Regulations Committee, told committee members during a live briefing session: “We are pleased to be moving forward with our colleagues from the great state of New Hampshire. New Hampshire delegates are represented at the Democratic National Convention this summer.
When Biden visited New Hampshire in March to open the state’s first coordinated campaign office, he told supporters he was waiting for New Hampshire’s delegates to be counted before going ahead with the DNC’s process, according to two people in the room.
The New Hampshire Democratic Party invited members to participate in a party-run primary election in which Biden is the only candidate on the ballot before holding a delegate caucus on Saturday. Two dozen people participated in the vote, which the DNC views as the sanctioned basis for New Hampshire’s right to delegates to its convention this summer, according to a source familiar with the process.
“New Hampshire is pleased to express our support for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in Chicago,” New Hampshire Democratic Chairman Ray Buckley told NBC News. “We are extraordinarily proud of the diverse and perhaps storied representatives chosen to represent us.”
Buckley said many of the delegates from New Hampshire to Chicago are under the age of 36 and some are LGBTQ.
Asked about the chaos surrounding the order of the Democratic primaries this cycle, Buckley said the party is ready to move forward.
“We prefer to look forward to the general election where we will re-elect Democratic governor Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.” [in New Hampshire]both congressional seats and state majorities,” Buckley said. “We’re on it.”
Buckley added that New Hampshire’s retention of the nation’s top primary status in 2028 “will be a concern after the election.”
“We have to save democracy first,” he said.