Updated as of 10:45 a.m. Feb. 24 to include an interview from Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party Anderson Clayton.
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.
“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.”
Since 1975, New Hampshire state law has required it to hold the first presidential primary election. However, 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.
Iowa holds a caucus instead of a formal primary, which involves voters gathering to discuss and nominate candidates rather than just casting anonymous ballots. Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, Anderson Clayton, was an Iowa caucus organizer in 2019 and said she saw firsthand the influence of Iowa’s voters on the rest of the election cycle.
“They knew what their power was, and it was enabling those voters on the ground to really put priorities in place for a presidential nominee,” Clayton said. “One thing North Carolina is trying to do by positioning ourselves to be one of the first-in-the-nation states is to ensure that the issues that North Carolina voters care about also become the issues that go shape a presidential election cycle.”
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.”
The 12 states the DNC is considering for 2028 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?”
The decision of which states will hold the first-in-the-nation Democratic primaries could be made as soon as September 2026, according to Clayton. The Republican National Committee election calendar is generally released around the same time.
Clayton said the DNC announced the application process in November 2025 and the North Carolina Democratic Party submitted their proposal in January 2026.
“I’m not naive to the fact that this is a hard fight, but I think that people across North Carolina need to understand that we’re fighting to make sure North Carolina’s voice matters nationally,” Clayton said. “For so long, we’ve gotten to places in presidential primaries where North Carolina’s electorate is being targeted to and messaged to by issues that are dictated by other states. I believe that North Carolina should be the state to dictate what a presidential candidate actually focuses on and relies on.”
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 to either move up the primary window or separate the Republican and Democrat primaries.
In 2020, Republicans in the state legislature moved the primary calendar window up from May to March to be part of Super Tuesday, when the greatest number of U.S. states hold primary elections. Clayton said the North Carolina Democratic Party believes moving the primary window up further would bring an unprecedented amount of economic revenue to the state.
“The difference between being an early state and being a Super Tuesday state could mean upwards of $70 million in economic revenue for the state of North Carolina,” Clayton said. “It means looking at the places where the races early invest in, which is in infrastructure and economic development in terms of the hotel industry and tourism industry.”
Bitzer said North Carolina also reflects common conflicts experienced 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.”
Regardless of the DNC’s final primary calendar decision, Clayton said she wants North Carolina voters to see their concerns being valued and prioritized on a national level.
“Even if we don't make it in `28, we’re at least sowing the seeds for 2032,” Clayton said. “Let’s think long-term about the trajectory of North Carolina and where it should be in a national conversation.”