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The Democratic National Committee on Saturday approved President Joe Biden’s shakeup of the party’s 2024 primary calendar, giving Black voters a greater say in the nominating process and carving an easier path for Biden’s expected re-election bid.

The party’s vote on Saturday replaces the famed Iowa caucuses as the first in the nation with South Carolina, a state with significantly more Black voters and one that saved Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. It would be followed by New Hampshire and Nevada one week later, and then by primaries in Georgia and Michigan.

The promotion of South Carolina and Georgia reflects a demographic balancing decades in the making for the Democratic Party at the expense of two largely white states that rejected Biden in 2020. It also underscores the growing power of the racially diverse coalition that helped bring Biden to power.

“The Democratic party looks like America, so does this proposal,” said Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee.

The move faced opposition from leaders in Iowa and New Hampshire, who are being pushed down the nominating calendar and vowed to defy the new schedule and hold elections on their own schedule. Any change to those calendars would require support from Republicans who control government and oppose the move.

Copyright 2023 Thomson/Reuters