Key roles of Iowa and N.H. in presidential nominating process are more threatened than ever, Politico reports

"The siege of Iowa and New Hampshire has begun," report David Siders and Elena Schneider of Politico. "The two states with privileged places on the presidential primary calendar are finding their roles more threatened than ever before — most recently in the form of a bill introduced in Nevada this week to move that state’s nominating contest to the front of the line in 2024."

The two rural forerunners have faced such challenges before, and political leaders in the two states warned that they would defend their positions, but Politico says they will find that more difficult this time because "the combination of Iowa’s botched 2020 caucus and increasing diversity in the Democratic Party’s ranks has made the whiteness of Iowa and New Hampshire all the more conspicuous, putting the two states on their heels and throwing the 2024 calendar into turmoil."

New Hampshire law requires the state to hold its presidential primary at least seven days before any “similar election” in another state, and "Iowa has a similar law on its books, stating that it must hold its caucuses at least eight days before any other nominating contest," Politico notes.

Nevada Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson, a Democrat, told Politico the bill to set a primary for the second-to-last Tuesday in January was designed to start a “national conversation about what makes sense. It would not be ideal to just have a back-and-forth and just have a leapfrog exercise, so the hope is that we can coordinate with the national party as well as our states, and work something out.”

Politico reports, "Frierson, like many other Democrats outside of Iowa and New Hampshire, suggested that instead of presidential candidates focusing for a year or more on Iowa and New Hampshire — two heavily white states — it would 'behoove' them "to be speaking to a diverse population" more reflective of the electorate at large. Nevada, in addition to fitting that bill with its sizable Hispanic population, also shares an advantage that Iowa and New Hampshire have — being small enough in population that a candidate without massive resources can compete there. So, too, does South Carolina, the fourth state in the 'early carve-out' states before Super Tuesday." It has a large Black population.

With caucuses that some say are anachronistic and bad for minorities, Iowa's system could be in more jeopardy. Iowa's Dave Nagle, a former congressman and state Democratic chair, defended "Iowa’s place as a voice for rural voters and voters in the Midwest," Politico reports, and 'suggested that at a minimum, the Nevada legislation was straining relationships between states. For years, he said, the four early nominating states had resolved to 'stand together, not get in a contest against each other.' The legislation, he said, 'has a tendency to break down the alliance.'"