Reince Priebus Opens The Door To Changing Early Primary States After 2016

Preibus’s comments immediately set off alarm bells in Iowa, whose caucuses have marked the beginning of both major political parties’ nominating contests since 1976, and in New Hampshire – which has hosted the nation’s first presidential primary every four years since 1920.

“It’s a hot topic”, Priebus said. These early states are very used to fighting this out every four years. “It’s just something I think we ought to look at as a party”, he continued. “If you look at my history, I’ve been very supportive of the early states as general counsel and as chairman”. “I think we’re a long ways from tearing up the script and starting over, but it is something we need to be mindful of”, says Craig Robinson with TheIowaRepublican.com.

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush took to Twitter Tuesday afternoon to defend New Hampshire’s position. Gardner enjoys unflinching bipartisan support in the New Hampshire legislature and is a revered figure in the state’s tight-knit political community, which has long bolstered his efforts to keep New Hampshire’s primary first. The latest such attempt comes from the Republican National Committee chairman, Reince Priebus.

New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner, who has nearly single-handedly defended the state’s first-in-the-nation status for decades, seemed caught off guard by Priebus’ comments yesterday.

“Voters in (Iowa and New Hampshire) take their responsibility seriously and are among the most active, knowledgeable voters anywhere in the nation”, he said.

Although Priebus has made a lot of changes to the GOP’s primary process in this presidential election, he told National Journal that this was one change he neglected to make ahead of the 2016 primary season – and he wants to fix that in the future.

He raised the prospect of creating a “rotating primary process” that would last about 10 weeks and said the issue would be “front and center” when the RNC’s Rules Committee meets at next summer’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

If anything, the RNC proposed safety to such first sections of the country this sequence like no time before, backing up intense repurcussions for anyone who is a… A few veteran lawmakers worry about the clout of the Republican and Democratic parties, which have dominated US politics since the Civil War.

It doesn’t help that the two biggest events in the primary election cycle – votes that have driven candidates who fared poorly to drop out – take place in a coupe of the whitest states in the Union.

The New Hampshire primary is tentatively scheduled for February 9.