A headache caused by President Joe Biden appears to be on the precipice of developing into a migraine.
Democrats and senior Biden campaign officials are “scrambling” following the possibility that the incumbent president could cede the first unofficial Democratic primary contest of 2024.
According to a damning report published Thursday by Politico, all of this could have been avoided if Biden had been better at relationship management.
In particular, the president could face the humiliating predicament of losing New Hampshire by default if he fails to appear on the primary ballot.
Why?
Biden and his top aides modified the Democratic presidential nomination schedule in an odd act of favoritism.
New Hampshire has traditionally been the first state to hold its primary, a tradition that dates back more than a century.
After Biden pushed to alter the party’s nominating calendar to grant South Carolina “first in the nation” status, this tradition may have ended for Democrats.
According to Politico, the president granted South Carolina this new position in line as a means to express gratitude for the Palmetto State’s assistance in reviving his faltering 2020 primary campaign.
New Hampshire’s state laws require its primaries to be held a week earlier than those in other states, which is a significant oversight.
New Hampshire’s Republican governor, Chris Sununu, and Republican legislators are understandably averse to altering these state laws to aid Democrats.
The Democratic leadership must now scramble to find a remedy or solution before the June deadline.
“If there’s any opportunity for this to get resolved by New Hampshire having more time, all of us will say, ‘Give New Hampshire more time,’” said Randi Weingarten, the widely derided teachers union leader and one of the Democratic National Committee members who voted to alter the calendar.
James Roosevelt, Jr., co-chairman of the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, added: “In states where state legislatures have refused to comply with the party rules, the state parties have run primaries that are conducted by the party.”
Surely, Weingarten, Roosevelt, and other prominent Democrats are collaborating with their New Hampshire counterparts to determine this for Biden, right?
Well. Not quite.
Unhappy with the loss of the state’s venerated “first in the nation” status, New Hampshire Democrats appear content to watch the process unfold, regardless of whether Biden is on the ballot.
“We can’t change our laws and that’s that. We’re hosting the first primary,” said Ray Buckley, chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party. “The president can decide if he wants to put his name on the ballot.”
According to Politico, the Democrats’ intentions amount to little more than stalling: They are merely attempting to purchase more time to prevent Biden from being removed from the ballot.
This could put Biden’s reelection campaign off to a poor start.
Already a historically unpopular president who is predominantly being blamed for the poor state of the economy, he can ill afford to give Marianne Williamson and Robert Kennedy Jr. a chance to present themselves as viable alternatives.