Warren co-chair Pressley says primary order should 'absolutely' change

[left-of-center2012]

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), the co-chair of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass) presidential campaign, said the order of the primary nominating contests should change, citing a lack of diversity in the earliest states.

Pressley, the first black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts, told Politico for a story published Thursday that the nominating order should “absolutely” change, claiming it favors white and male candidates.

She also dismissed Iowans who point to former President Obama as an example that Iowa and New Hampshire leading the primary voting season doesn’t hinder candidates of color. Obama won the Iowa caucus in 2008 and finished second in New Hampshire. "You know what, people use Obama for everything: 'This is supposed to be our evidence of a post racial America,'" Pressley said in an interview with Politico while campaigning for Warren in South Carolina.

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, who backed Warren after ending his own presidential campaign, has repeatedly said that Iowa and New Hampshire should be replaced as the first-in-the-nation caucus and primary states. Castro argues that the states do not reflect the diversity of the country, or the Democratic Party.

Warren herself, however, has not gone as far as her high-profile surrogates in lambasting the order of the primary states.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/480803-warren-co-chair-pressley-says-primary-order-should-absolutely-change

[Kurt V.]

1. Its so obvious.

[Sherman A1]

2. I believe that a national or regional rotating primary

on a specific day would be more efficient, but that is just my opinion.

[brooklynite]

16. If we had a National Primary, Yang would not be a candidate...

...only candidates who could raise massive amounts to campaign and advertise nationwide would be competitive.

[Sherman A1]

18. and neither would Mayor Pete

So what's your point?

[brooklynite]

20. Precisely. That's why the current system is valuable...

Pete was as unknown who was able to become competitive by face to face campaigning in the small preliminary States, and subsequently has been able to raise money for the larger contest.

[Sherman A1]

23. Well

At least Yang came into the race with a well laid out plan as opposed to the “gee, I’m going to run for President, now I’ll go figure out what people want.”

[brooklynite]

24. I'd say he's done a lousy job of explaining what the well laid out plan is...

[lapucelle]

3. A national primary voting weekend would remove a lot of the insanity. N/T

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. It would be too hard and too expensive for all the candidates to campaign nationally,

but rotating primaries seem to be a good idea.

[lapucelle]

9. We wouldn't have campaigns that (in essence) start 3.5 years before the actual election.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. That would be nice.

[lapucelle]

13. We have an insane system fueled by money and the media.

We need reform.

[bluedye33139]

5. And lose out on the pearl clutching drama every four years!

I'm just joking. I absolutely think that the primary system is needlessly traumatic and dramatic. The early states back east lock in the pattern, and the populous western states come in as an afterthought.

California actually looks a lot more like the United States in terms of population and demographics, and having California be the first state would be a much wiser thing.

As a disclaimer, I should point out that I do not live in California and I'm not making the suggestion out of selfishness.

[lapucelle]

6. It would restore some sanity and take some of the money out. N/T

[OneMoreCupOfCoffee]

7. A national primary would work greatly to the advantage of billionaire candidates.

[lapucelle]

11. Cap the spending through reform.

Dark money is currently fueling campaigns of the "pure".

[OneMoreCupOfCoffee]

14. Still super expensive to do a national campaign.

And what about self-funded candidates of the Mike Bloomberg sort?

[lapucelle]

15. It would be expensive, but they're all sitting on money. They'd need to figure out

the best way to spend it wisely. And cap what a candidate can spend to offset the self-funders.

[OneMoreCupOfCoffee]

17. But if non-self funders are capped at, say, XX million

How do they compete with a self-funding billionaire prepared to spend a billion?

[MBS]

19. exactly.

There is real value in having an initial stage, focused on a cluster of small states, that force candidates to meet voters up close and personal. It's good for the voters, and, even more, good for the candidates. Voters in the early states (especially IMO Iowa) take their responsibility very seriously; when I've done phone banking and canvassing for NH and Iowa , I've often thought that, if all voters took the primaries as seriously as they did, our country would be in better shape than it is.

Without these early states, there will be no opportunity for candidates ever to be vetted up close and personal, or for candidates to ever have actual conversations with individual voters.

And the voting would be determined 100.00% by TV ads and personal wealth. (Which is apparently Bloomberg's strategy, and a key reason, in addition to his age, and several of his policies, why he should not win the nomination, and honestly, why he should not even be running. If his M.O. carries him to the nomination, it would be a travesty of the process).

[Devil Child]

25. This idea makes the most sense to me n/t

[Tarc]

8. I live in saltine cracker-white New Hampshire, and even I want the order to shakeup

We are not representative of the nation at all.

[LongtimeAZDem]

10. Primary dates should be decided by lottery each convention

[DanTex]

21. She's right. They should rotate.

[BeyondGeography]

22. Iowans take this seriously but so what?

The caucus is a ginormous time suck, so much so that Iowans don’t even start paying close attention until candidates have done 70 or 80 events there. That brings them to the two-month-out mark after which things get serious. It’s absurd, especially when NH is the other state taking up most of the candidate’s time. What it amounts to is the competition for nonwhite voters is reduced to name recognition and the outcome in two overwhelmingly white states whose makeup couldn’t be further from what our actual base looks like.

[brooklynite]

26. Warren signed a pledge to support Iowa's first in the nation Caucus last year....

All candidates who attended the IDP Dinner last fall did.