(BrightPress.org) – Primary voters who want to support the President will have to write in Joe Biden’s name in New Hampshire on Tuesday, January 23rd. Biden will not be officially included in the state’s primary as local and national Democrats are in dispute over when the vote should be held. National Democrat leaders working with President Joe Biden wanted to push the vote back, but state law requires the vote be held on January 23rd.
Biden wasn’t removed from the ballot due to lawfare in New Hampshire. The Democratic National Committee decided that South Carolina would hold the party’s first official primary and instructed New Hampshire to vote afterward on the same day as Nevada, February 6th.
New Hampshire would have to pass a law to make that change a reality, and the state’s largely conservative legislature was not going to do that. As such, the January 23rd primary vote won’t yield delegates for the official conference this summer. With Biden having very little challenge to his presumed candidacy in November, the impact on the Democratic primary is negligible, or so DNC leaders think.
Biden was technically not allowed to campaign in the state due to DNC rules; he sent several of his cabinet in his stead, however. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made an appearance. Buttigieg came in second place during the 2020 Democratic primary. Biden also sent Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. They’ve all been hosting events around the state to promote Biden as the Democratic candidate.
Biden voters have begun their own grassroots effort to promote a write-in campaign. Biden supporters seem nervous that he could lose the primary in New Hampshire. The state is unique in that anyone can vote in any primary regardless of party affiliation. Biden is being challenged by writer Marianne Williamson and House Representative Dean Phillips (D-MN).
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was running as a Democrat until October 9th last year. He argued that the DNC was changing rules to exclude his candidacy, so he made the move to run as an independent.
Supporters of the write-in campaign already have begun to lower expectations for his performance, suggesting in a January 16th memo that their task to get voters to write in Biden’s name is “very difficult” and that his performance on the 23rd will not reflect his actual support in the state.
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