South Carolina's first-in-the-nation primary status looks fraught as Dems sour on Biden

Yahoo

3 days ago

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA — Democrats here took a vital first step in delivering Joe Biden the presidency five years ago. Now, they're hoping his tarnished legacy won't jeopardize their future as an early primary state.
Already, there are hints some Democrats will revert to New Hampshire holding the party's initial primary contest, while progressives want to see labor-heavy Nevada take the lead. And there's even talk of friendlier southern states, like Georgia or North Carolina, leapfrogging South Carolina.
'The unfortunate part is, Democrats are saying that, and they think that [South Carolina leading] is a bad part of Biden's legacy,' said Bre Booker-Maxwell, a national committeewoman, Saturday on the sidelines of the state party's convention.
She questioned the rationale of such a decision, before answering herself. 'The fact that the man ran the second time, and he probably shouldn't have run?' she asked skeptically. 'Some people just need to get over themselves and whatever issues they have with Joe Biden.'
Attempts to move past Biden and the bad aftertaste of 2024 got underway this weekend as state party insiders hosted a pair of out-of-state governors with obvious, but still publicly undeclared, sights on the 2028 nomination.
Govs. Wes Moore of Maryland and Tim Walz of Minnesota took turns gracing the outdoor stage while onlookers feasted on whiting filet on white bread, at the World Famous Fish Fry, an annual tradition hosted by the state's Democratic kingmaker, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.).
Walz, the first to greet the crowd, spoke of the missteps from the last cycle and Democrats needing to expand their reach beyond a handful of swing states.
'I went to the same seven damn states over and over and over,' Walz said. 'People are pissed off in South Carolina, they're pissed off in Texas, they're pissed off in Indiana. … We need to change the attitude, compete in every district, compete for every school board seat.'
Moore, who earlier Friday delivered the keynote address at the state party's Blue Palmetto Dinner, drew cheers from the mostly Black attendees of the fish fry when he said 'we come from a resilient culture' and encouraged them not to run in the face of challenge. He then pivoted to Trump and the havoc his so-called big beautiful bill would create if passed, which Moore suggested would push tens of thousands of kids into poverty while enriching the president's billionaire buddies.
Once speeches wrapped, several in the crowd broke into line dance while South Carolina crooner 803 Fresh's campaign anthem 'Boots on the Ground' blared over loudspeakers.
It was not the rip-roaring affair of 2019 when a cavalcade of 21 presidential candidates — including Biden — wooed attendees with stump speeches. Friday night's gathering at the EdVenture Children's Museum was held as many Democrats are still grappling with the pain of widespread electoral defeats.
Biden's return to the national spotlight — through negative coverage detailing how those in his inner circle shielded the president's deteriorating condition from the outside world — has only resurfaced some long-held misgivings about his legacy.
'All this talk about President Biden and what should have and what could have, what might have, is a bunch of bullshit,' said Trav Robertson, a longtime Democratic operative and former chair of the state party. 'We can peck that to death if you want to, but that is in the past. South Carolina represents going into the future.'
South Carolina, a state where Black Democrats make up a substantial portion of primary voters, played a pivotal role resurrecting Biden's moribund campaign. When Clyburn threw his support behind Biden ahead of the South Carolina primary in 2020, it vaulted him to the nomination and later, the presidency. In return, Biden pressured the Democratic Party to upend its traditional nomination calendar by moving the state to the lead-off position.
But that electoral situation was tenuous. By running for reelection, Biden sapped energy out of the 2024 primary. Now, party officials are bracing for its status as the kickoff state to be ripped away.
'I think it would be a mistake to act like South Carolina's place [at the top] is just because of Biden, when this has been a conversation we've been having for 20 years,' said Nick Sottile, an attorney and executive director of the South Carolina House Democrats.
Like nearly every Democrat in the state, he points out the benefits of South Carolina are vast. In addition to paying homage to a vital Democratic voting bloc, the small state with relatively cheap media markets won't bankrupt campaigns, which can hit upstate, midlands and the coast — a mix of urban, suburban and rural areas — all on a single tank of gas. Then there's the robust defense of South Carolina primary voters' history of picking presidents — Bill Clinton in 1992, Barack Obama in 2008 and Biden in 2020 — particularly in contrast to New Hampshire and Iowa.
'We get it right, and it's a proven track record,' Sottile added. 'It's not one election and one candidate that we're talking about.'
That feeling is not shared by many outside the state.
A longtime member of the DNC's committee that helps determine the presidential primary order granted anonymity to discuss informal discussions suggested South Carolina's current spot atop the calendar will undoubtedly come under scrutiny in the coming months.
'Clearly South Carolina members will want to continue to be first in the calendar for obvious reasons,' the person said. 'I think that no one else is going to feel any kind of obligation to keep South Carolina at the top of the calendar — because Biden is gone.'
Biden may have unintentionally shattered South Carolina's standing next cycle, which only adds to a sense of betrayal over his role in ushering in another Trump presidency.
'There are people who are just mad as hell about everything that happened in 2024,' said Sam Skardon of Charleston.
He admits he was one of the few in the state party who believed Biden's promise to be a 'bridge' candidate to the next generation. He took the job as chair of the Charleston County Democrats in March 2023 hoping to preside over a robust primary. A month later, Biden announced his reelection bid.
'There's a special connection here that's a deeper attachment, I think, than most states' Democratic Parties have to President Biden, probably up there with Delaware for thinking of him as our own,' Skardon added. 'But yeah, then there is additional anger, I think, at Biden for … not not letting us put our best foot forward.'
Some believe Biden is simply too convenient a scapegoat for the party's broader problems. Backpedaling on giving Black voters more of a say in picking the party's nominee could erode trust in a bloc that's already drifting away from the party.
'It is a slap in the face … to Black Americans, where people are questioning Joe Biden at this point,' said Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist who resumed his role as emcee of the fish fry. 'It was Joe Biden who had the steel spine, the guts and the courage to declare that Black Americans' voices should be heard first in the presidential preference process.'
But Seawright also shared concerns that too many voters here view Democrats as out of touch.
'I think trust was a part of the formula for Trump's success in the last election cycle,' Seawright added. 'You had some people who, in my opinion, did not necessarily vote for Donald Trump, they voted against the Democratic brand.'
At the Palmetto Dinner, Jaime Harrison, the chair emeritus of the Democratic National Committee and Orangeburg, South Carolina, native revved up the crowd by putting a positive spin on the party's standing in state since Biden left the stage.
'We are more organized, we are more energized, and we are more focused than ever before,' he said, heaping praise on the state's party chair Christale Spain who was elected to a second term on Saturday. 'I am going to be on record right now to the South Carolina Republican Party, 2026 is going to be a reckoning.'
Amanda Loveday, a Democratic strategist based in Columbia who worked on Biden's 2020 presidential campaign, is another South Carolina defender. But she is less optimistic given South Carolina's Democrats, who have long been locked out of power in the state, suffered setbacks last cycle.
'We lost [state] Senators and House members that we have absolutely no business losing,' Loveday said, which included two prominent Black lawmakers including state Sen. Gerald Malloy and state Rep. Joseph Jefferson.
Republicans flipped four state Senate seats last cycle, leaving just 12 Democrats in the chamber. And in the presidential election, Trump's victory was never in doubt, but he increased his margin by 6 percentage points over 2020.
All this is fueling speculation that South Carolina's neighbors — North Carolina and Georgia — which have notched statewide wins for Democrats in recent cycles, have better arguments to hurdle South Carolina in the primary calendar.