DNC blasts NH Dems over ‘meaningless’ primary

The Democratic National Committee is blasting New Hampshire Democrats for selecting delegates for the state's “meaningless” unsanctioned presidential primary.

The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee fired off a letter to New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley ahead of the state party’s delegate caucuses Saturday warning that the process had not been approved and that no delegates or alternates would be awarded based on the results of the unofficial primary.

“Non-compliant processes can disenfranchise and confuse voters,” Minyon Moore and Jim Roosevelt Jr., the co-chairs of the Rules and Bylaws committee, wrote to Buckley in the Friday letter shared first with POLITICO.

The upcoming primary is “detrimental” and “meaningless,” they wrote, and “the NHDP and presidential candidates should take all steps possible not to participate.” The committee asked the state party to submit a “compliant” delegate selection plan by Jan. 15.

Buckley, the New Hampshire Democratic Party chair, dismissed the pushback as "nothing new."

"They've been saying that for a year, yet we persist," he said.

New Hampshire is holding an unsanctioned Democratic primary in just over two weeks after state and national Democrats failed to agree on the order of this year’s nominating calendar.

President Joe Biden and the DNC pitched South Carolina, a more diverse state that propelled Biden to the nomination in 2020, for the lead-off spot. But Republicans who control New Hampshire’s government refused to change the law that says the state must hold its primary a week before any similar contest. The secretary of state scheduled the primary for Jan. 23. South Carolina’s Democratic primary is Feb. 3.

Biden skipped putting his name on the ballot for New Hampshire’s primary as a result. His allies in the state are now waging a write-in campaign on his behalf.

New Hampshire Democrats continued with business as usual by scheduling delegate-selection caucuses for Biden and longshot challengers Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) and self-help guru Marianne Williamson on Saturday.