Party Politics

Washington State could hold one of the first 2024 Democratic presidential primaries

Wash­ing­ton could end up being one of the first states in the nation to hold a Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­den­tial pri­ma­ry in the upcom­ing 2024 cycle if the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Com­mit­tee decides to award it a cov­et­ed spot on the nom­i­nat­ing cal­en­dar, the Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty announced today.

The par­ty — on whose gov­ern­ing body I sit as a state cen­tral com­mit­teemem­ber — will get a chance to make a for­mal pitch sup­port­ing its bid for an ear­ly spot on the cal­en­dar to the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Com­mit­tee lat­er this month. Two oth­er states are also in the run­ning for the west­ern region’s spot: Col­orado and Neva­da, which have vot­ed Demo­c­ra­t­ic for Pres­i­dent for sev­er­al con­sec­u­tive cycles.

If Wash­ing­ton is cho­sen, Demo­c­ra­t­ic vot­ers here would get a chance to influ­ence the 2024 nom­i­na­tion at a very ear­ly stage for the first time in U.S. history.

Until 2020, Wash­ing­ton used an all-cau­cus sys­tem to allo­cate and select its nation­al con­ven­tion del­e­gates. But last cycle, the Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cen­tral Com­mit­tee vot­ed to adopt a hybrid pri­ma­ry + cau­cus del­e­gate selec­tion plan after the Leg­is­la­ture agreed to change state law to pro­vide for a pri­ma­ry that ful­ly respect­ed the par­ty’s First Amend­ment right of free assembly.

(Adop­tion of that leg­is­la­tion was one of NPI’s 2019 leg­isla­tive pri­or­i­ties, and I was one of the state com­mit­teemem­bers who cham­pi­oned the hybrid plan.)

That hybrid plan called for the use of pri­ma­ry to allo­cate all of the con­ven­tion del­e­gates and cau­cus­es to decide who would rep­re­sent the par­ty at the 2020 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion, which end­ed up being held most­ly remotely.

The plan worked extreme­ly well, and Wash­ing­ton saw record-break­ing pres­i­den­tial pri­ma­ry turnout just as SARS-CoV­‑2 was becom­ing a glob­al pub­lic health emer­gency. Instead of hav­ing to spend hours in a gym or cafe­te­ria to vote in a cau­cus (which would not have been fea­si­ble to stage in any case due to the coro­n­avirus), vot­ers were able to express a pref­er­ence for who the nom­i­nee should be sim­ply by cast­ing a bal­lot sent to them by coun­ty elec­tions officials.

A deci­sion by the DNC to give Wash­ing­ton a more promi­nent role in the qua­dren­ni­al nom­i­nat­ing process which would be a big deal. In the event of a com­pet­i­tive pri­ma­ry, Wash­ing­ton would like­ly see more vis­its from pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates and could host one of the debates, too. Even if Pres­i­dent Biden runs again and faces lit­tle oppo­si­tion for the nom­i­na­tion, Wash­ing­ton would still wind up get­ting more nation­al atten­tion than it has in the past.

“It is an hon­or to advo­cate for Wash­ing­ton on the nation­al stage and high­light the many rea­sons why our state con­tin­ues to be on the fore­front of pro­gres­sive pol­i­tics not only in the West, but the entire nation,” State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty Chair Tina Pod­lodows­ki said in a state­ment sent to media outlets.

“Wash­ing­ton is one of the best posi­tioned states to run the kind of high-pro­file and vot­er-acces­si­ble nom­i­nat­ing con­test that a pre-win­dow state requires,” Pod­lodows­ki not­ed last month when the par­ty first applied. “Our state has every­thing a bal­anced nom­i­nat­ing con­test should look for: broad diver­si­ty – racial­ly, eco­nom­i­cal­ly, geo­graph­i­cal­ly, and polit­i­cal­ly – a ded­i­cat­ed and effec­tive par­ty orga­ni­za­tion and demo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly-con­trolled gov­ern­ment, and a shin­ing vote-by-mail sys­tem to encour­age sta­bil­i­ty and faith in the nom­i­nat­ing process itself.”

The state’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic lead­ers all sup­port the bid, from Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee and Sec­re­tary of State Steve Hobbs to Speak­er Lau­rie Jink­ins, Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Andy Bil­lig, and the Demo­c­ra­t­ic mem­bers of state’s con­gres­sion­al delegation.

The DNC will make a final deci­sion between Wash­ing­ton, Col­orado, and Neva­da in ear­ly August, around the same time Wash­ing­ton holds its 2022 Top Two election.

Andrew Villeneuve

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