For the first time in New Hampshire’s presidential primary history, an incumbent president running for reelection will not appear on the ballot.

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DOVER, N.H. (NEXSTAR) - For the first time in New Hampshire’s presidential primary history, an incumbent president running for reelection will not appear on the ballot. 

President Joe Biden will not be one of the 21 names that will appear on the Democratic ballot on Tuesday, in this traditional first in the nation primary.

Here’s why: The Democratic National Committee and President Biden’s campaign wanted the South Carolina primary to be first, as South Carolina has a more diverse base of Democratic voters than New Hampshire. They said South Carolina would be a better representation of the country’s Democratic voters than New Hampshire.

However, New Hampshire’s Republican-controlled state government did not want to give up their "First in the Nation" status, and so New Hampshire scheduled their primary early. 

“It's a terrible disservice by Democrats to try and strip Granite Staters of the First in the Nation status that they have worked hard and earned time and time again,” New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu said in December 2022. “The good news is that our primary will still be first, and the nation will not be held to a substandard process dictated by Joe Biden and the Democrat Party.”

Candidates on the Democratic ballot include author Marianne Williamson and Minnesota representative Dean Phillips, but there are New Hampshire voters who have been pushing a "Write-in-Biden" campaign. 

On Sunday, voters held a rally in Dover, New Hampshire, for President Biden, raising awareness for their write-in campaign. 

“I wanted to make the case to progressives that we need to rally behind this president,” said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif). “Biden has enormous achievements for the working class, middle class, the climate, and we’ve gotta unify.”

Khanna said that in a seemingly inevitable rematch between President Biden and former President Donald Trump, giving President Biden a big win in New Hampshire on Tuesday will go a long way to defeating Trump in November if a rematch does occur. 

Gale Bailey, a Durham resident, came out to support the write-in campaign to save democracy.

“We can’t afford another four years of Donald Trump…and I feel like [Biden] has the best chance to beat Trump,” she said. 

While write-in candidates always have long odds in any primary election, none were the incumbent president. Write-in candidates have won elections before, however, so this isn’t an impossible task for President Biden. In 2010, though, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski lost the Republican nomination to Joe Miller but won the general election as a write-in candidate, and in 1954, Strom Thurmond began his U.S. Senate career with a landslide victory as a write-in candidate in South Carolina.

Max Weisman is a senior at Newhouse studying Broadcast and Digital Journalism at Syracuse University and has interned/reported for the New York Post.

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