Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips bashed President Biden in a new ad calling him out for wanting to replace New Hampshire as the first-in-the-nation primary.
“For over a century New Hampshire has held the first-in-the-nation primary. Granite-staters have faithfully carried out that grave responsibility propelling the candidacies of some and ending the candidacies of others,” the narrator says in the ad titled, “The New Hampshire Way.”
“Now, Joe Biden has ordered New Hampshire to step aside. That’s not the New Hampshire way,” the ad says.
The ad, released Tuesday, shows the Minnesota congressman hitting the streets of New Hampshire to talk to voters in diners, taverns and town squares — “the way it’s always been done.”
“Dean Phillips. Running on an agenda of affordability by building millions of new homes, raising wages. With the courage to take on the drug and insurance companies and to make the ultra rich and large corporations pay their fair share. To protect a woman’s right to choose,” the ad touts.
Mr. Biden’s campaign announced in October that he wouldn’t file to have his name appear on the New Hampshire Democratic primary ballot.
Last year, Mr. Biden called on the Democratic National Committee to change the order of the 2024 primary to empower Black and other minority voters by replacing Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucus with the South Carolina primary.
The DNC approved the new 2024 calendar in February, starting with South Carolina followed by New Hampshire and Nevada.
“We must ensure that voters of color have a voice in choosing our nominee much earlier in the process and throughout the entire early window,” Mr. Biden wrote to the DNC last December.
Iowa and New Hampshire are two of the Whitest states in the union, while South Carolina, especially among Democratic voters, is among the Blackest and Nevada has a large Hispanic populace.
New Hampshire officials were not happy about that decision, arguing that it has always held the first primary, which Iowa got around by holding a caucus. The state scheduled its primary for Jan. 23. South Carolina’s is set for Feb. 3.
“Respecting our state law and lifting up diverse voices need not be mutually exclusive,” said Joanne Dowdell, a DNC rules committee member from New Hampshire.
Polls show that the president is still the leading Democratic candidate for 2024. Some supporters of Mr. Biden have called on Democratic voters to write-in his name on the ballot.
“While the president wishes to participate in the Primary, he is obligated as a Democratic candidate for President to comply with the Delegate Selection Rules for the 2024 Democratic National Convention promulgated by the Democratic National Committee,” Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden for President campaign manager, wrote in an October letter.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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