New Hampshire's First-In-The-Nation Primary Election Has Been Excised
By Bernie Marvin
New Hampshire's First-In-The-Nation Primary Election has been excised from the vanguard of the Primary Election cycle and replaced with South Carolina, which has now been anointed as the first state to cast ballots in the next Presidential Primary Election.
The Democratic National Rules Committee finally got their chance recently to ax the Granite State and quash their favored state primary status.
Oh, but wait! According to New Hampshire law, Granite Staters will still vote first in the nation, but the election will not have the glitz and pizzazz of the past Primary Elections when droves of candidates trooped the hills and Class 6 roads of New Hampshire seeking face-to-face meetings to gain early primary sound bites, news shots and positive opinion polls.
The days of the New Hampshire First-in-the-Nation Primary elections were fun, newsworthy and exceedingly educational, sometimes weirdly so, as candidates flocked to the state to freeze, enjoy innocent chicanery, eat great food and have some honest-to-goodness real conversations about who is or who is not qualified (in their opinion) to be president of the United States.
The top Democrats recently selected South Carolina to cast the first Primary votes for the 2028 Presidential Election, something that first happened for the 2024 election after the Democratic National Committee set South Carolina to go first with their primary date, with approval from former President Joe Biden, saying that South Carolina is more racially diverse and better reflects their party's future road to success.
Up until that time, from the 1950s, New Hampshire went first among all the states in the crazy whirlwind of pre-election visits from candidates who wanted an initial reaction from Granite State voters before they cast their presidential dreams in stone.
That 2024 election was the death knell of New Hampshire being the first state to vote in the Presidential Primary. The glitz and glamour, the local excitement of meeting, entertaining, interviewing, and mingling with a bevy of national hopefuls thinking about running for the Oval Office, has been snuffed out.
But not to moan and groan. It is time to reminisce; It was a very cold winter back 25 years ago. Looking for political activity to cover, I saw that an Arizona senator was coming up north for a day-long bus ride to meet voters. Could be an interesting gig for the candidate, so I decided to tag along. The presidential hopeful aboard the bus was John McCain, who gained some fame and was well known all over the Granite State, but 20 years ago, he was fairly unknown in these parts.
I booked a media seat on the bus, named "The Straight Talk Express," that was parked in front of Howard's Diner in Colebrook, and off we went into the O-Dark-Thirty darkness of a cold New Hampshire winter. McCain was accompanied by his Hollywood pal, Fred Thompson, and a CNN cameraman-reporter, plus other news hounds and moguls such as Tucker Carlson.
The ride took us north, then south, through big and little towns, where locals had come to meet the Arizona politician and hear what he had to say.
By the end of the excursion late in the afternoon, we ended up in Littleton. It was an interesting trip, and the Straight Talk Express made stops in several small towns, and McCain met a good part of the stalwarts living there.
He told me he found residents to be friendly and interested in his candidacy, and when the New Hampshire Primary Election votes were counted, McCain whipped George Bush 115,000 to 72,000 votes in the final tally. Not bad for a guy no one knew.
Primaries in New Hampshire have been fun because it was a time every four years that the political hopefuls paraded through the area. I have met some interesting people seeking the presidency. I have also met some very strange people who run for a variety of reasons, some with an odd agenda, and others with a deep mission and commitment, and others with a mighty different outlook on most everything they turn their attention to.
Some of the Primary candidates I interviewed for local and regional stories or radio programs include Lamar Alexander, Gary Bauer, Richard Bosa, Steve Forbes, Bill Bradley, Pat Buchanan, George H. W. Bush, General Alexander Haig, Bob Dole, Bob Kerrey, Bob Dornan, Allan Keyes, Al Gore, and Phil Gramm.
Also, Orrin Hatch, Jack Kemp, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Richard Lugar, John McCain, Eugene McCarthy, Arlen Spector, John Edwards, Howard Dean, General Wesley Clark, Mitt Romney, and Ron Paul.
Each one had a different story to tell, some interesting, some not so, and when I look at the list, it is amazing that small-town news folks can get to meet so many politicos working hard to be selected as the next president of this country.
For the 2016 Presidential Primary Election, the field included Democratic hopefuls Hillary Clinton, Liz Warren, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Jim Webb.
Other names I have seen that can be included on this list include, believe it or not, Hollywood actor Ben Affleck, Barbara Boxer, Andrew Cuomo, Howard Dean, Rahm Emanuel, Al Franken, Kirsten Gillibrand, Maggie Hassan, and Peter Shumlin.
For Republicans, many had indicated an interest, but by the time the January 2016 Primary Election came around, the list was shortened. Some of these names may be remembered today, but back then, when the candidates were roaming around New Hampshire looking for support, they were big news and attracted hordes of media firms throughout the nation and the world.
Rick Santorum, Marco Rubio, Rick Perry, Dr. Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee, Paul Ryan, Allen West, Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, and Rand Paul.
Interviewing the First-In-The-Nation candidates was interesting, but those opportunities are over. Now, that First-in-the-Nation title is not appropriate for New Hampshire in the Democratic agenda, but the law says New Hampshire still goes first.
Republican Governor Kelly Ayotte said last week she is looking forward to hosting both parties' primary elections in 2028.