The DNC restores New Hampshire’s delegates after a second nominating event unknown to many Democrats

WASHINGTON — The Democratic National Committee’s regulatory arm voted Tuesday to list New Hampshire’s full slate of delegates at the party’s convention this summer, ending a bitter feud with the state over the fact that the presidential primary is no longer the were the first in the country.

The move follows an event last weekend, when the Democratic Party of New Hampshire invited state committee members to witness “the final steps of the delegate selection process” just hours before the state committee’s scheduled meeting.

In an updated delegate selection plan submitted by the state party and shared by the DNC, the state party calls what happened Saturday a “party-run delegate selection,” though several committee members told The Associated Press that they did not know this was the case. considered a primary or a nominating event – ​​and it was unclear whether the invitation to attend was extended to anyone other than committee members.

The state party did not provide results from the event, although Chairman Ray Buckley said in a statement that the “delegation selection process has been completed.”

That meeting effectively bypasses for party purposes the Jan. 23 vote that President Joe Biden won through a write-in campaign. It ends threats of sanctions against the state’s Democrats for refusing to postpone to South Carolina, which Biden allies wanted at the front of the calendar to prioritize Black voters over predominantly white Iowa and New Hampshire. historically the two states that went first.

Kathy Sullivan, a former state party chair and DNC member who did not attend Saturday’s event, said it was just a few Democrats casting ballots that listed only Biden.

“No one would call this a primary except the DNC, and trying to say this is in line with DNC rules is ridiculous, but I guess they needed to save face somehow and get some Kabuki theater to make it appear as if they had not capitulated completely. even though they effectively capitulated completely,” Sullivan wrote in an email. “Despite all the threats, the drama, the wasted time and energy, all our delegates are in place. No punishment. No fines. We win!”

Normally, a primary requires attendees to declare their voting preference, while a delegate selection meeting — as the party described the event to committee members before it took place — chooses the actual people who will represent each candidate for president at the nominating convention.

Neil Levesque is director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College, the site of Saturday’s event. “I didn’t know about it until this morning and the details haven’t been released yet,” Levesque said Monday.

Still, what happened this weekend was enough for the DNC to move forward with Tuesday night’s vote. Jim Roosevelt, co-chairman of the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, cheered that the matter had been resolved.

“We as a committee, and as a national committee, have been through a difficult number of weeks and months to get to this point and I believe New Hampshire has been through a difficult number of weeks and months where some of the things that we would like to have seen happen did not happen,” Roosevelt said. “It just so happens that that’s all behind us now.”

The battle dates back to December 2022, when President Joe Biden ordered the DNC to reshuffle the presidential primaries to better empower voters of color, who are the party’s most loyal base.

The committee installed South Carolina’s 2024 primaries last Feb. 5, pushing back Iowa, where a caucus has been underway since 1972, and New Hampshire, where the contest’s first primaries have been held for more than a century.

New Hampshire rebelled and held its January primary not sanctioned by the national party, and the DNC threatened the state with sanctions, including having its delegates not sit at the national convention in Chicago starting August 19.

Tuesday night’s vote allows the state to go to the convention as normal. DNC rules approved for this cycle suggest punishment for Democratic primary candidates who campaigned in the unsanctioned primaries, including Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips from Minnesota and self-help author Marianne Williamson.

However, that doesn’t matter since neither won delegates to the convention. Biden did not campaign in New Hampshire or appear on the ballot, but easily won the election through a write-in campaign organized by some of the state’s top Democrats.

The primary battle overall was largely moot, as Biden is an incumbent president seeking re-election and faces only token primary opposition.

Still, ending the feud was potentially important for both sides as the DNC plans to reexamine the order of its 2028 primary calendar after Election Day this fall — which could reignite a battle to go first.

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Associated Press writer Holly Ramer contributed to this report from Concord, New Hampshire.