South Carolina is poised to host the first Democratic presidential nominating contest of 2028 after the Democratic National Committee’s rules panel moved to keep the state at the front of the party’s primary calendar.

The proposal, expected to be formally recommended Friday and presented to the full DNC at its summer meeting next month, elevates South Carolina over Nevada and New Hampshire. Both states will still be allowed to hold early contests, while Michigan was also granted permission to vote early. Iowa is likely to be removed from the early-voting window altogether.

The decision follows months of intense lobbying by competing states. South Carolina Democrats argued that opening the process in their state would emphasize the importance of Black voters, while Nevada leaders stressed the importance of Latino, Asian and working-class voters in a key battleground state.

The DNC is also expected to approve stronger penalties for states that ignore the official calendar. Proposed punishments include stripping those states of all delegates, imposing a $270,000 fine and barring candidates from official party debates if they campaign in unauthorized contests.

South Carolina’s position at the front of the calendar was first established for the 2024 cycle after then-President Joe Biden pushed the DNC to overhaul the traditional order following the troubled 2020 Iowa caucuses. The state played a decisive role in reviving Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign after his losses in Iowa and New Hampshire.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)