CONCORD – The Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws Committee approved the New Hampshire Democratic Party delegate selection plan, a decision that means the New Hampshire delegates will be seated at the DNC Convention in August.
“We are incredibly proud to send this diverse and impressive delegation to the National Convention, and I thank the delegates for their commitment to standing up for democracy.” said NHDP Chairman Ray Buckley in a news release.
New Hampshire had refused to adhere to the national committee’s decision to have South Carolina host the first primary.
New Hampshire law requires it to hold the first-in-the nation primary and it did so Jan. 23. President Joe Biden wasn’t on the ballot, but won in a write-in campaign.
This ends the DNC threat of not seating New Hampshire delegates at the summer convention in Chicago, but raised questions about the process.
The Associated Press reported the move follows a weekend event when the NHDP invited “state committee members to witness ‘the final steps of the delegate selection process’ a few hours before its scheduled State Committee Meeting.”
“In an updated delegate selection plan submitted by the state party and shared by the DNC, the state party calls what occurred on Saturday a ‘party-run delegate selection primary,’ though several committee members told The Associated Press that they were unaware that it was considered a primary or a nominating event — and it was unclear if the invitation to attend it was distributed to anyone other than committee members.
“The state party has not provided results of the event, though Chairman Ray Buckley said in a statement that the ‘delegate selection process is complete,’” the Associated Press reported.
Buckley said in the news release the NHDP is “sending an incredibly diverse delegation of 39 members to the convention that includes eleven youth, ten LGBTQ+, five Asian American and Pacific Islander, three African American, two Latino, and one Indigenous delegates. Of these, 26 have not attended a convention before. The slate of convention delegates includes the 16 district level delegates that were first selected at the January 6th pre-primary caucuses.”