New Hampshire Vows to Maintain First Presidential Primary

US President Joe Biden appears to have united Republican, Democratic and Independent voters in New Hampshire on one issue, while the White House is pushing for South Carolina to replace Granite State as the first state in the country to hold a presidential primary in 2024.

Sentiment against the proposed change is channeled through Chris Ryan, who hosts “New Hampshire Today” on WGIR radio in Manchester.

“This is the greatest threat New Hampshire has ever faced in over 100 years of voting, and it’s being brought by Joe Biden, a person who ran for president three times here,” Ryan recently told his audience.

Feelings are hurting among diners and staff at Manchester’s Red Arrow Diner, known as the restaurant every future US president must visit.

“New Hampshire is very proud to have this role in the primary, and to take that away without deep reasoning is in some ways offensive, but it’s more like a slap in the face,” Mark Hanneman, who manages a construction and renovation business, he said when he had finished eating.

The walls of the diner are adorned with photos of candidates, including some who have become president. Plaques stuck to the counter indicate which famous people have sat at this place.

Economic boom

The nation’s first grassroots elementary school is very important to New Hampshire’s economy, especially its hotels and restaurants, said Ellen Ryan, who has served burgers and cream pies in four presidential campaigns. “It attracts a lot of people,” she said. “It’s nice. Please don’t take it away.”

More than 20 top New Hampshire Democrats sent a letter to the White House in mid-January asking the president not to change the status quo.

“While we share your desire to raise more diverse voices in this process, we believe the proposed schedule could wreak havoc on New Hampshire Democrats up and down and unnecessarily jeopardize four crucial electoral votes in your re-election campaign,” the letter read.

Biden’s campaign stalled when he finished fifth in the 2020 New Hampshire primary after losing to the Iowa Caucuses. A subsequent first-place win in the South Carolina primary propelled him to the Democratic Party nomination.

Candidates here are forced to visit local restaurants, trudge through the snow and face tough questions from skeptical middle-class voters in the small, mostly white country state. It’s a system that can nurture underfunded, unknown politicians but undermine well-funded famous faces who prefer to let their election commercials do the talking.

“I think the White House is clearly trying to manipulate and alter the election schedule and calendar to the best advantage of the incumbent president,” said Neil Levesque, executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics and Political Library at Saint Anselm College in Manchester.

Small states with great power

The political establishment is concerned about a small state wielding so much power with an unpredictable system where independents can vote for either a Republican or Democratic ballot on Election Day, Ryan said.

“They’d much rather have a more concentrated, smaller constituency and fewer voters in a place like South Carolina or, what I think is happening, moving more towards a nationalized elementary school where you can just survive on cable television [advertising] buys, [a] good social media/digital campaign and you never really have to talk to a real person,” he told VOA.

Asked by VOA during a press conference in mid-January to articulate the White House’s stance and explain why New Hampshire should be penalized by the Democratic Party if it doesn’t concede the country’s first primary to a state more representative of the country’s ethnic diversity Landes is, spokesman Karine Jean-Pierre was reluctant.

“The Democratic National Committee has looked into this,” she said. “I’m just not going to elaborate further on what we’ve already shared.”

States that hold primary elections before the first Tuesday in March without approval from the Democratic National Committee would lose half of their pledged delegates to the party’s nominating convention. The state’s so-called superdelegates, which include party leaders and members of the US Senate and House of Representatives, would also not be allowed to vote at the convention.

It might get louder

If New Hampshire is fined for holding an unauthorized primary, Biden could face a Democratic Party challenger in hopes of exploiting a backlash.

“I have no doubt that there’s going to be a candidate who’s going to run against Joe Biden on the Democrat side, come here and be successful,” Ryan predicted.

“If they move it away from New Hampshire, would that eliminate the possibility of a challenger to President Biden? no It’ll just change the dialogue and might even make New Hampshire louder,” said Anna Brown, director of research for Citizens Count, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that educates New Hampshire voters on issues and candidates.

Despite the threats, Levesque said New Hampshire has no legal room to maneuver over its premiership status.

“We have a law here in New Hampshire that says we’re going to leave seven days before any other similar election,” Levesque said. “And it’s important to realize that the United States of America is exactly that — we’re made up of 50 states, and the New Hampshire primary is a state-level election. The White House or any other organization at the national level has no say when we hold a state election.”

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu told reporters, “We go first. We will have a winner.”

Sununu, a Republican, is a possible presidential candidate next year.

If Biden skips New Hampshire, another Democrat running in the state “will have a steam behind him regardless of what games the DNC wants to play,” the governor added. “You clearly haven’t been thinking [this] by.”

“I think it’s going to be a very exciting New Hampshire primary whether or not Biden has a challenger,” Brown told VOA.

The DNC is scheduled to issue final approval for next year’s calender of primaries in early February.

Anita Powell of the White House contributed to this report.