Prominent Democrats gathered in a D.C. hotel Monday to begin deciding which state will host the very first primary of the 2028 presidential election. For the Silver State, the meeting marked an opportunity to see years of work pay off, especially after a sudden defeat last time around.

The competition will play out within the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) Rules and Bylaws Committee, a subset of party leaders from across the country. On Monday, committee members codified new criteria to decide the early primaries: rigorousness, fairness and efficiency.

The fight for Nevada has been a long time coming. 

“I firmly believe that Nevada, with our broad diversity that truly reflects the rest of the country, should not just be among the early states — we should be the first in the nation,” Nevada kingmaker and late Sen. Harry Reid (D) said in 2020. 

Since 2008, the order had been fixed: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. The first primaries draw outsized media coverage, elevate state party leaders and voters, and focus the candidates’ attention on the issues that matter most where they are held. 

When Democrats revisited the calendar ahead of 2024, Nevada was in the running for first. But when President Joe Biden put his thumb on the scale in favor of South Carolina, there was no appetite to buck the party’s leader and presumptive nominee. Now, with a Republican in the White House and a competitive primary on the horizon, 2028 will look very different. 

Why Nevada wasn’t first

For decades, Nevada held a party-run caucus, which required voters to express their preferences in-person in a time-consuming and complex process. In 2021, then-Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) signed a law that instead required a state-run primary held on the first Tuesday of February each presidential election year. The switch to a primary made voting easier, while the date positioned Nevada first in the existing lineup. 

In 2022, the Rules and Bylaws Committee met to consider a shake-up. Diversity, general election competitiveness and feasibility were top requirements. Nevada seemed to check all the boxes. The state has significant populations of Black, Latino and Asian American and Pacific Islander voters, a strong union presence, election reforms that make it easy to vote, manageable media markets and battleground status. 

Nevada’s committee member and longtime DNC member Artie Blanco made calls to help colleagues understand all the details. Numerous national organizations, especially ones representing voters of color, backed Nevada’s bid to go first. 

“I thought we had a strong case, but you just never know,” Blanco, who was elected DNC vice chair this year, said in an interview with The Nevada Independent on Friday.

The Rules and Bylaws Committee delayed its decision until after the 2022 midterms. Members were eager to move Iowa’s contest after its last caucus turned chaotic, but the debate about whether New Hampshire or Nevada would take the first slot was unsettled, according to multiple committee members. After all, New Hampshire has a decades-old state law requiring it to hold the first primary. 

“I think New Hampshire would have ended up first,” Elaine Kamarck, a Brookings senior fellow who authored Primary Politics and is a veteran member of the committee, told The Nevada Independent. “Because of the history of New Hampshire and because it’s in the Eastern time zone.”

It turned out the discussion was moot. The night before the committee planned to hash it all out, Biden issued a letter outlining what mattered to him. He wanted the Rules and Bylaws Committee to focus on the working class, union members and people of color, especially Black Americans, eliminating caucuses and including voters from different regions. DNC staff conveyed the president’s preferred schedule: South Carolina first, followed by Nevada and New Hampshire on the same day, Georgia, then Michigan.  

“We’d been asking for guidance for months, so there was kind of relief,” Kamarck said. “We didn’t know if the president was going to weigh in or not. So it was kind of like, ‘OK, good. He’s finally made his wishes known.’ Some of us thought that, ‘Well, maybe he just won’t weigh in. You know, maybe it’s up to us.’ But he did.”

One committee member remembered being surprised that South Carolina was first. The Palmetto State had sought to stay in the early window, they said, but not to claim the very first slot. But South Carolina had been key to the president’s 2020 primary victory, and that was what he wanted. The committee would take action the next day.  

‘Nevada’s time’

“That morning, it was in the air as committee members were checking in on me,” Blanco told The Nevada Independent. “It felt [like] they were being very thoughtful and polite but somehow saying ‘It’s not Nevada’s time yet — but maybe next time.’ I felt like saying, ‘If not now, when?’” 

That question resonated even more years later. 

“Trump went on to win every battleground swing state, including Nevada, as Hispanic and working class voters swung the election,” Blanco continued. “That’s why we’re not giving up — it’s Nevada's time now.”

On the video recording of that key 2022 meeting, viewers hear the Rules and Bylaws Committee gathering begin with a soft melody, which someone quipped was “lower-the-temperature music.”

Member after member weighed in. Some lauded the president and the process; others uplifted their states, their voices colored by dissatisfaction. Blanco quietly typed her statement. She recalled growing emotional; she wanted to weave in her own story and to represent the entire state. Toward the end of the discussion, she spoke. 

“We are discussing what is the final piece of legacy the late Sen. Harry Reid worked toward in his final year of life,” Blanco said, noting it was the senator’s birthday. “And how he placed this first-generation brown girl … to represent the Battle Born state, who grew up in a home of a single father, who lost his right hand on the job, where the machine failed him, but his union contract did not let him fail me or my younger brother.” 

Blanco, a union organizer who once washed dishes with a bucket and a mangera (hose), spoke of all Nevada had to offer. She expressed love for Biden and his letter. She asked for only one adjustment to the president’s suggestion: that Nevada stand alone on its planned primary date on the first Tuesday of February and, with South Carolina voting the Saturday before. After a lunch break, the resolution was set, with Nevada and New Hampshire on the Tuesday Blanco had requested. 

“Nevada truly appreciates the accommodation that has been made,” Blanco said. “While not ideal to be on the same day as another state, we accept that and accept what the will of the president is.” 

Nevada’s Democratic senators were less appreciative. 

“This proposed new order for the early states disregards the broad coalition of national organizations and leaders calling for Nevada to go first, and instead elevates a state that doesn’t meet the criteria to start off this process,” Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen said in a joint statement.

They vigorously called for changes to the proposed schedule, but it was too late. While New Hampshire bucked the committee to hold an unsanctioned primary first, Nevada followed the rules and held its presidential primary on Feb. 6, 2024, which Biden won in a landslide. 

In a way, the state notched a win. It moved up one spot on the official calendar, to second place. 

“In Nevada, we’re very respectful of the process,” Blanco said on Friday. “We don’t cry about it; we don’t get angry. We just go back and we start the fight again.”