New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella is amplifying the battle between national and state Democrats to a legal one, accusing them of voter suppression and sending a cease-and-desist order.
Formella’s office sent a letter to the Democratic National Committee on Monday after the national party told state Democrats that they must “educate the public” that this month’s primary will be “meaningless” and candidates “should take all steps possible not to participate.”
“Falsely telling New Hampshire voters that a New Hampshire election is ‘meaningless’ violates New Hampshire voter suppression laws,” Assistant Attorney General Brendan O’Donnell wrote to Minyon Moore and James Roosevelt, Jr, co-chairs of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee.
The committee decided last year that South Carolina would hold the party’s first-in-the-nation primary instead of New Hampshire, which was moved to second place. Since then, the state and the DNC have been engaged in a fight over New Hampshire’s refusal to cede its primary status.
States that break the rules and decide to go out of the primary calendar order can have their delegates cut by 50%, and candidates who campaign in the state will not receive any delegates, according to rules passed by the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee last August.
The New Hampshire attorney general’s office disagreed with the national party’s assessment of the primary.
“Regardless of whether the DNC refuses to award delegates to the party’s national convention based on the results of the January 23, 2024, New Hampshire democratic Presidential Primary Election, that election is not ‘meaningless,’” O’Donnell wrote. “Your statements to the contrary are false, deceptive, and misleading.”
The attorney general’s office warned the DNC to stop engaging in any conduct that would violate state law, including repeating the statements about New Hampshire’s “meaningless” primary, or risk “further enforcement action.”
President Joe Biden, who is the likely Democratic nominee and the favorite of the DNC, will not appear on the New Hampshire primary ballot, his campaign announced in October 2023. Democratic candidates Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) and Marianne Williamson will appear on the ballot in the primary, which will take place on Jan. 23.
Despite the absence of Biden on the primary ballot, New Hampshire Democrats are still anticipating a large voter turnout.
“Well, it’s safe to say in New Hampshire, the DNC is less popular than the NY Yankees,” New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley said in a statement via CNN. “State law requires the New Hampshire Secretary of State to conduct the first-in-the-nation primary and he is going to follow the law — period. Nothing has changed, and we look forward to seeing a great Democratic voter turnout on January 23rd.”
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On Monday, Phillips and Williamson participated in a debate in Manchester, New Hampshire, sharing their views that the national party is suppressing voters in the 2024 Democratic primary. Phillips later told reporters that the party’s write-in effort for Biden shows it made a “terrible mistake.”
“The fact that the president is not here, the fact that the Democratic Party is telling everybody this is meaningless, but yet they’re doing the write-in campaign and have a super PAC set up here, I think that is all you need to know,” the Minnesota Democrat said.
