Adios Iowa?
New Jersey Democrats advanced their anticipated bid for an early New Jersey presidential primary this week, Save Jerseyans; their state chairman, LeRoy Jones Jr. of Essex County, penned a letter to the DNC touting, among other selling points, the Garden State’s famed diversity.
“New Jersey is as diverse as any state in the nation, with a population that is 15% Black, 10% Asian American, and 21% Latino – proportions that are significantly higher among registered Democrats voting in a primary,” wrote Jones. “Our Latino community is particularly diverse, with large populations ranging from recent immigrants to first, second, and third-generation residents whose ancestry can be traced back to countries and regions such as Cuba, Central America, South America, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Mexico, among others. As the home of Ellis Island, New Jersey also has a long and storied tradition of welcoming immigrants throughout our history. This striking level of diversity makes New Jersey truly representative of the Democratic Party and the current and future American electorate.”
He also bragged about the state’s strong labor profile.
“We are also a proudly pro-choice and pro-LGBTQI rights state that unabashedly believes that we must protect everyone’s reproductive rights and serve as a welcoming home for all,” Jones added.
You can read the full letter here. Plenty of Democrats are apparently on board with shaking up the early state picture, and media-types including Jeffrey Toobin (whose personal accomplishments include getting caught whacking of on Zoom) like the idea, too. We’ll see if they agree that New Jersey voting in January or February is the right way to go.
Toobin’s support should probablyy be a red flag for the party of the donkey. Here’s the obvious problem with LeRoy Jones’s pitch if you’re the DNC: Democrats have no problem winning populous, diverse states with strong union membership as it is.
Democrats’ challenge in 2024: winning over working class whites in places like Iowa and Pennsylvania while simultaneously arresting GOP progress with Hispanic voters, particularly Mexican voters in places like Texas and Arizona.
A New Jersey primary won’t help Democrats figure out who can hold onto Arizona or make Iowa competitive again.
It will push the nominating contest further left and, in so doing, put states like Iowa and Florida out of reach for another generation in addition to putting other states in play. Less nominees like Obama and Clinton (’92), more candidates like… Phil Murphy or Cory Booker?
It shouldn’t be a surprise anyone that LeRoy Jones doesn’t get it. This is a guy who recently wrote off the Southern half of his own state. What would be slightly more surprising is if national Democrats don’t see the danger of letting their New Jersey comrades exercise an outsized role in selecting their next standard-bearer.
