New Hampshire Sets Primary Elections for Jan. 23

New Hampshire's primary elections will take place on Jan. 23, 2024, Secretary of State David Scanlan announced Wednesday.

The New Hampshire primary will take place eight days after the Iowa Caucus but ahead of the South Carolina primary. That means the New Hampshire primary is out of compliance with the Democratic presidential nominating calendar because it is outside of the window they designated for primary scheduling. For this reason, President Joe Biden is staying off the ballot in New Hampshire but is expected to win the primary through a write-in vote.

While announcing the date, Scanlan emphasized the importance of keeping New Hampshire's tradition of being first in the nation for the primaries.

"At what point does the state become too old or too wealthy or too educated or too religious to hold an early primary?" Scanlan asked during the announcement, addressing concerns that the state wasn't a good representative of the country. "The truth is there is no individual state that truly reflects the makeup of America and no state is more American than any other state."

Scanlan also mentioned how political parties — in this case, the DNC — shouldn't interfere with election calendars. "At stake is who gets to determine the nominee of the party, the elites on a national party committee by controlling the nominating calendar or the voters."

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu also spoke during the announcement, praising the decision to have the primaries on Jan. 23 and calling it "not just keeping a nice tradition."

"That's not what this is, the first-in-the-nation primary is something that is earned," Sununu said.

During his announcement, Scanlan also mentioned the 24 candidates that have signed up for the Republican primaries in the state, and the 21 candidates on the Democratic side — which will not include President Joe Biden, who will follow DNC guidelines.

"I think that there are very few states in the country, if any, that have this level of competition in a presidential primary," Scanlan continued.

DNC chair Jaime Harrison posted on his social media later on Wednesday referring to South Carolina as host for the first-in-the-nation Democratic primary.

"Looking forward to taking my boys with me to vote on February 3rd as South Carolina hosts for the very first time the #FITN Democratic Presidential Primary! #Historic #FITN," Harrison wrote on X.