DNC chair says Democrats will start process of setting 2028 primary calendar this month

Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin said on Sunday that the party will begin deliberating the 2028 primary calendar later this month at a meeting in Minneapolis.

“We're going to start that conversation actually this month in August at our DNC meeting in Minneapolis,” Martin said in an interview on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday,” when host Chris Stirewalt asked about the primary calendar in the next president election.

“The Rules and Bylaws Committee, which is newly composed, will start this conversation by putting forward the rules and procedures, and start to really figure out how we're going to engage in this,” he continued.

Martin said the process will play out over the next year, and he expects to have a calendar set by the end of next year.

Stirewalt asked Martin about questions arising from the party’s 2024 postmortem, specifically about the decision to heed former President Biden’s request to shift the primary calendar to favor South Carolina and Michigan — states in which Biden was expected to perform well.

Stirewalt noted the primary calendar changes “probably insulated the incumbent president to an unhelpful degree,” pointing to the fact that Biden waited until July to end his campaign.

But Martin, who was elected chair in February, said he is committed to making the process fair and said any state that wants an early primary date should be permitted to bid for one and be considered.

“The process of having states come in to bid for this has to be fair and open,” he said. “Any state that wants to be part of the early-states window will be considered by the DNC.”

Martin also said he anticipates a crowded primary field in 2028 and said he wants to make sure the process for setting the calendar is guided by three principles: “One, it has to be rigorous. Two, it has to be efficient. Three, it has to be fair.”

“It has to be rigorous, in the sense that it battle tests our nominee and prepares them for the general election,” he said, expanding on the first principle.

Martin said it has to be “efficient” in a way that “we don't bankrupt our candidates in the early part of this process.”

“We want them to have resources for the general election because the only prize that matters is November.”

“And the third thing is that it has to be fair,” he added. “It has to allow all of our candidates, which God knows how many candidates we're going to have, to actually compete in those early states.”