A long-simmering feud between Black and Latino leaders in the Democratic Party exploded into the open Wednesday over which state should vote first in the 2028 presidential primary — South Carolina or Nevada.Why it matters: The racially fraught battle could help determine which candidates will have an early edge in the race to be the party's next nominee for the White House.The debate focuses on two groups of voters who are crucial to Democrats' success in presidential elections.Any Democrat seeking to win the party's nomination must do well among Black voters, while the party is desperate to recoup its dominance with Latino voters after years of seeing them drift to the GOP.State of play: South Carolina, with its large Black population, and Nevada, with its large Latino population, have emerged as the states most likely to lead off the Democratic contest in 2028, according to interviews with seven members of the Democratic National Committee, state party officials and strategists.That's prompted sniping between leading Black and Latino voices ahead of Thursday's meeting of the DNC's powerful Rules & Bylaws Committee, which plays a key role in determining the primary calendar.The Rev. Al Sharpton, the African American civil rights leader, released a blistering statement Wednesday saying South Carolina should remain first on the primary calendar — as it was in 2024, when then-President Biden effectively placed it there."To turn around now and push South Carolina to the back of the line would be a slap in the face to the very voters who've kept this party alive," said Sharpton, whose comments were blasted out to reporters by South Carolina's Democratic Party.Christale Spain, the state's party chair, told The New York Times: "If Nevada gets elevated over South Carolina, it would be because of their Latino vote. So you would then be telling Black voters that you matter less than brown voters.
And I refuse to believe that our party wants to send any type of message like that."Spain later told Axios: "The Trump administration and Republicans have been very clear-eyed about attacking Black political power. I think that it's important that we do recognize where we are in this moment."More than two dozen Latino leaders, including heads of groups such as Voto Latino and the Latino Victory Project, wrote to the DNC's rules panel Wednesday urging it to pick Nevada to go…
Summary from source