A Democratic National Committee (DNC) panel voted on Friday to have South Carolina open the party’s 2028 presidential nominating calendar. South Carolina received 26 votes, Nevada received 19, and New Hampshire received four.
All 49 members of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee voted, and 25 votes were required for a majority, according to the committee’s parliamentarian.
The decision is not yet final—the full DNC is scheduled to ratify the calendar at its August meeting.
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), a member of the committee, said during the meeting that Michigan had asked not to be considered for the lead-off position.
Iowa, which asked the committee in May to lead off the calendar again, lost its region to Michigan. Iowa’s Democratic caucuses had opened the party’s presidential nominating calendar since 1972, until the DNC moved South Carolina to the front for 2024.
In December 2022, President Joe Biden proposed that change and it was accepted by the committee. This time the state was selected in a contested vote among three candidates. South Carolina was pivotal to Biden gaining momentum before Super Tuesday and ultimately winning the 2020 primaries, after facing defeat in Iowa and New Hampshire then coming out ahead in South Carolina.
The committee also voted to expand the early window from five states to six. A resolution the committee adopted in October 2025 had capped the early window at five states and required at least one from each of the party’s four geographic regions.
The committee later in the meeting filled the two remaining slots, completing a six-state early window. In the order approved, South Carolina is projected to vote Jan. 22, 2028, followed by Nevada on Feb. 1, New Hampshire on Feb. 8, New Mexico on Feb. 15, Michigan on Feb. 22, and Virginia on Feb. 29, according to a DNC press release.
In a statement, committee co-chairs Minyon Moore and James Roosevelt Jr. called it the most diverse calendar Democrats have had for an open nominating contest.
The order drew debate. Some members argued that a state from each of the party’s four regions should vote before the two added states—which they said would make the calendar more balanced—noting that New Mexico, added fifth, is scheduled ahead of Michigan, the Midwest’s sole early-window state. A motion to require that failed on a tie vote.
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) said Michigan’s primary is set by state law for Feb. 22 and the state could not move it, in part because waiver states must confirm by mid-September that they can hold their contest on the assigned date and Michigan’s Republican-led House may not agree to an earlier one.
Democrats began overhauling the calendar after the 2020 Iowa caucuses, when a failure in the state party’s reporting system left the results unresolved for days—something brought up by members at Friday’s meeting.
New Hampshire held its 2024 primary outside the DNC-approved order. State law directs the secretary of state to schedule the primary at least seven days ahead of any similar contest.
Last month the committee amended 2028 delegate selection rules to strengthen penalties for unsanctioned contests.
States that hold one lose all their delegates, including automatic delegates, up from 50 percent, and face a $270,000 fine. Candidates who violate the rules would be barred from DNC debates and from earning delegates in any early-window contest, and campaigns are required to denounce efforts to campaign on their behalf in unsanctioned contests.
