‘It’s Time for Black Voters to Actually Have a Say’: Ex-Biden Adviser Touts President’s Call to Make S. Carolina First 2024 Primary State

CNN anchors Victor Blackwell and Alisyn Camerota discussed a newly proposed 2024 primary calendar for the Democratic Party, which is being backed by President Joe Biden.

Biden’s surprise shake-up proposal came at the end of the day Thursday, just ahead of a Democratic Party gathering to vote on a new calendar.

Biden is “asking the Democratic National Committee to make South Carolina the first state to host a primary beginning in 2024. Iowa, of course, has been the first in the nation since 1920. Joining us now is former senior adviser to the Biden 2020 campaign. Alencia Johnson. Alencia, make the case for us, why does South Carolina deserve to be first and not Iowa?” Camerota asked Johnson.

“Well, it’s time for Black voters to actually have a say very early in the process. No Democratic president can win without winning a majority of Black voters. And we see what happens in South Carolina each and every year. Black voters make a choice that sometimes isn’t reflective of what the Iowa caucuses have showed us,” Johnson replied, adding:

They ended in 2020, when I was part of the primary process as a senior member of Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign, we felt that a lot of voters left there without confidence and therefore standing. And so if we want to make sure, particularly Democrats want to make sure that their base, the black voters, have a say early in the process and show that we know who could be the next president of the state. South Carolina has to go first.

“All right. So let’s look. We’ve got it on the screen now. Let’s put it back up so we can talk people through what the current order is on the left, Iowa first, and New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina. On the right, you have the proposal from the president, South Carolina, first Nevada or New Hampshire, next, then Georgia, Michigan, the states that have been elevated, those states that Biden won. So it could seem self-serving if he’s expecting a primary in 2024 to change the order. Can this happen if he is running for reelection?” followed up Blackwell, pushing Johnson on any potential conflicts of interest for Biden.

“I understand that correlation, however, we think about it. Those voters made the case for who they believe that the nominee should be, and it turned out to be President Biden,” Johnson replied, adding:

Not only did he win the nomination, he won the actual general election. And those states that you listed, not only are majority black voters represented in those states, you also have a lot of Latino voters represented in those states.

A lot of young voters in those states. And these are also states that represent rural as well, suburban voters, college educated and non-college educated voters. The diversity that makes up the Democratic Party is truly reflected in those states. And a state like Michigan, for example, would be reflective of the Midwest, just a lot more diverse than Iowa.

“Well, here’s another argument that I want your thoughts on. Do we want the primary, the first primary, to be a luge shoot straight to the presidency? Isn’t the primary process, part of it is duking it out among all the candidates to see who is the most fit. So one person wins Iowa, one person wins New Hampshire, one person wins South Carolina. And it’s a process,” asked Camerota.

“I do agree that we need a process. We need a robust process. But the Iowa caucuses, I’m going to be very honest, and 2020 was not the most, you know, positive experience for a lot of candidates. And I may have been and I’m on TV talking about this a lot, but a lot of us come out of the Iowa caucus and have a conversation and media a lot of pundits, a lot of news anchors, a lot of journalists,” replied Johnson.

“We have this conversation about what voters may or may not want. And so by the time a candidate gets to a primary three or four weeks later down the road, the media has kind of already made the case for who the nominee should be and that might influence voters. So if we shake things up a bit, have some more diverse states go earlier, maybe we’ll have the voters setting the tone in the narrative instead of people like myself or some of the journalists as making the case for who is going to be the nominee based on those early predictions from a state that, quite frankly, doesn’t actually have as much say in the general election,” Johnson concluded, highlighting the importance of the narrative set by the early primary states.

Watch the full clip above via CNN