North Carolina is one of 12 states vying for the first-in-the-nation Democratic primary in 2028, according to the Democratic National Committee. The DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee must select four to five states for the early nominating window of the 2028 presidential election, with at least one state from each of the DNC’s four regions: East, Midwest, South and West.

In recent presidential elections, the first four states to vote on candidates have been New Hampshire (East), Iowa (Midwest), South Carolina (South) and Nevada (West), according to Michael Bitzer, professor of politics and history at Catawba College. Iowa holds a caucus instead of a formal primary, which involves voters gathering to discuss and nominate candidates rather than just casting anonymous ballots.

“The perception is, if you are amongst the first of the states to have your primary, you can have significant influence and sway on who might become each party’s presidential nominee,” Bitzer said. “Iowa and New Hampshire have kind of set themselves up to cull the field, reduce the number of candidates down, because generally whoever finishes first, second or third out of both of those states has what we call momentum going into the rest of the primaries throughout the country.”

According to Bitzer, Nevada and South Carolina have moved up their primaries in recent presidential elections because they feel Iowa and New Hampshire don’t represent the broader electorate.

“South Carolina, particularly for Democrats, relies heavily on Black voters,” Bitzer said. “Their belief was a Democratic presidential nominee needs the Black vote in order to ultimately win, and they’re the best representative of that kind of an electorate. On the Republican side, it’s very much the dynamic of social conservatives and evangelicals — a strong base to the Republican Party in South Carolina.”

Final primary election calendars will be decided upon and released by the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee in early 2027. However, since 1975, New Hampshire state law has required it to hold the first presidential primary election.

In the 2024 presidential primaries, the DNC scheduled the first primary in South Carolina, leading to conflict between the national Democratic Party and the New Hampshire state party. New Hampshire violated the decision and scheduled a primary for January 23, 2024 – before the South Carolina primary – with then-President Joe Biden’s name off the ballot. Biden won the state through write-in votes.

Bitzer said there are still ways for the DNC to encourage states to follow their calendar decisions. For example, he explained that the national party can penalize states by taking away delegates, in turn making it less worthy to political candidates trying to become the presidential nominee.

The North Carolina Democratic Party applied in Jan. 2026 to be considered as the first state to hold a 2028 presidential primary. Bitzer said the state reflects common conflicts nationwide.

“A lot of the issues and the political dynamics are at play in North Carolina that we see across the country,” Bitzer said. “We have a very polarized environment; the parties themselves have aligned into very distinctive coalitions and factions. We have the urban-rural divide that plays itself out. We’ve got a healthy population of minority voters, particularly Black voters.”

The 12 states the DNC is considering are Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. According to the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee, states chosen for early primaries must have rigorous, fair and efficient elections.

“I think every state wants to be the first state to start picking presidential candidates,” Bitzer said. “Certainly, what early states get is a lot of attention. They get the candidates there. They get the candidates working the ground, they get the candidates spending money in that particular state. But the question is how determinative is an early state casting its votes for a slate of candidates?”

According to Bitzer, for North Carolina to hold the first-in-the-nation primary, they would have to both be chosen by the DNC and convince the Republican-controlled state General Assembly.