Georgia election chief announces date for 2024 presidential primary
SOS denies Dems' push for earlier primary
Georgia’s top elections official has announced a date for the 2024 presidential primary.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Thursday that the Democratic and Republican presidential preference primaries will be held on Tuesday, March 12, 2024.
The announcement from Raffensperger, a Republican, comes despite an intense push from Democrats to restructure their primary process.
Earlier this year, the Democratic National Committee voted to reshuffle their primary calendar, doing away with the traditional early states of Iowa and New Hampshire for more diverse ones like Georgia, South Carolina and Nevada.
The move to showcase more diverse states was made in response to analysts who argued that the current primary structure is unreflective of the Democratic Party’s diverse electorate.
But ultimately, Secretary Raffensperger has the final say on when primaries are held. He called the Democrats’ restructured primary calendar “unilateral” and says DNC officials never reached out to him to discuss an earlier primary. “If you want to get most things done in America, sometimes you have to build some consensus and reach out to both sides of the aisle,” he said.
Democrats, meanwhile, have said that they have been pushing state officials to move up the primary date for several months and say that the Secretary of State’s office has avoided taking part in these discussions. Raffensperger did, however, say that he looks forward to working with both parties on an earlier date for the 2028 primary.
It’s not the only setback for Georgia Democrats in their push for increased prominence in 2024. We learned last month that Atlanta had lost its bid to host the Democratic National Convention to Chicago.
Though Atlanta was viewed as the favorite, President Biden and his allies chose the Windy City after Illinois’s wealthy governor promised to personally write a check to help cover the costs of the quadrennial spectacle.
As for Republicans, a March 12 primary date threatens to jeopardize Georgia’s importance in the primary process. Super Tuesday, the day when lots of states hold their nominating contests in tandem, is one week before Georgia’s primary.
If one candidate does extremely well on Super Tuesday, we might have a good idea of who the GOP nominee will be before Georgians can weigh in.
But Raffensperger argues that a March 12 date makes Georgia the biggest delegate prize, as it will be the largest state to hold a primary that day. Idaho, Mississippi and Washington will also be voting on March 12.