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Joe Biden
Photo: John Locher/AP
At the urging of incumbent Joe Biden, the US Democrats are changing their calendar for determining their candidate for the 2024 presidential election. According to a decision made by the responsible party committee on Friday, the first thing to be voted on is South Carolina, instead of Iowa and New Zealand, as has always been the case Hampshire.
According to Biden, he wants to give African Americans more weight.
"Black voters have been the backbone of the Democratic Party for decades, but they've been pushed back in the primary process," Biden said.
African Americans and other non-whites should now have "a louder and earlier voice."
However, the background to the move may also be that Biden suffered defeats in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada at the start of the party’s preliminary votes for the 2020 presidential election.
Only a clear win in South Carolina got his flagging campaign going again.
According to his own statements, the President is flirting with a renewed candidacy in 2024, but has not yet announced it.
Significantly more African Americans live in South Carolina than in white-dominated Iowa and New Hampshire, where the month-long primary process for the Democratic Party's presidential candidate has always started.
Should Biden not run again after all, his Vice President Kamala Harris could also benefit from the change in the primary election calendar as a black woman in a possible candidacy.
According to the calendar now presented, the primary for the Democrats in South Carolina is to take place on February 3, 2024.
The next President of the United States will be elected on November 5, 2024.
Former President Donald Trump has announced to the Republicans that he wants to run for the candidacy.
dop/AFP
