WASHINGTON (AP) – United States (US) President Joe Biden won’t file to have his name appear on the 2024 New Hampshire Democratic primary ballot, his re-election campaign said on Tuesday, opting to skip a contest that the state plans to hold in defiance of a revamped primary order that the White House has championed.
Manager of Biden’s re-election campaign Julie Chavez Rodriguez wrote in a letter to New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Raymond Buckley that “while the president wishes to participate in the primary, he is obligated to comply” with party rules.
“The president looks forward to having his name on New Hampshire’s general election ballot as the nominee of the Democratic Party after officially securing the nomination at the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC), where he will tirelessly campaign to earn every single vote in the Granite State next November,” Rodriguez wrote.
Biden last year urged the Democratic National Committee to shake up the order of the 2024 primary, replacing Iowa’s leadoff caucus with the South Carolina primary to better empower Black and other minority voters crucial to the party’s base. In February, the DNC approved a new 2024 calendar, beginning with South Carolina’s primary on February 3, followed three days later by New Hampshire and Nevada.
But New Hampshire has balked at the plan, arguing that it has traditionally held the nation’s opening primary – a rule that Iowa only got around by having caucuses.
