By Jeff Rapsis
Every time New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary is in jeopardy, boosters cite many reasons for keeping the tradition intact.
Among them: the New Hampshire primary forces candidates to meet actual people instead of just spending money on advertising; the state is small enough for lesser-known candidates to be heard; Granite State citizens take the responsibility seriously, and so on.
All of these reasons are now being used to argue against the Democratic party’s recent decision to put South Carolina in the lead spot in 2024 instead of New Hampshire. (Republicans are so far sticking with the traditional schedule.)
But there’s one reason that often comes up, and it makes no logical sense.
It’s the one about how in New Hampshire, we have a state law requiring us to hold the nation’s first primary.
Gee, good for us! Yes, we actually passed a state law in the 1970s, when the state’s first-in-the-nation status was being challenged by the idea of a New England-wide “regional” primary.
Am I the only person embarrassed by this law being cited as an actual, legitimate reason to justify the New Hampshire primary going first? I mean, we passed a self-serving, self-referencing law, and we expect voters in 49 other states to take this seriously?
More often than not, it’s a cop-out used by those unable to justify New Hampshire’s role on its own merits.
“Hey, I hear what you say about our state’s lack of diversity and preponderance of elderly people and absence of big urban areas and all the many other reasons it would make sense for other states to go first. But hey, we have a law. We can’t do anything about being first. It’s our law.”
Really? Well, what if Idaho passed the same exact law as New Hampshire? What would happen? If Alabama passed a law requiring the state to hold its presidential primary no later than seven days prior to a similar state, where would that put us?
This makes as much sense as minting a $1 trillion coin to help reduce the U.S. national debt, an idea that’s been seriously floated in some circles. But that’s another topic.
If anything, citing our silly state law actually unmakes the argument that New Hampshire should hold the nation’s first presidential primary. After all, any state capable of passing such a self-serving law really can’t be trusted to make sensible decisions in elections.
Jeff Rapsis is Associate Publisher of HippoPress and Executive Director of the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire.