California has jumped ahead in the primary line. Usually holding their primary in June, months after Iowa’s kickoff in February, California’s Democrat primary will be held on March 3, 2020, allowing the state to have a greater influence in the primary game, reports the Wall Street Journal.
From the WSJ:
The move from a June primary in 2016 will press hopefuls to consider a West Coast perspective on issues such as immigration and the environment, empower the state’s growing Latino and Asian populations and drastically increase the amount of money candidates must raise to mount a competitive campaign.California’s calendar change is one of several developments reshaping Democrats’ primary process. Following the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary—two predominately-white electorates that are the traditional vetters of presidential candidates—at least six of the next nine states on the 2020 calendar will take Democrats through a swath of states where black and Hispanic Democrats dominate primary elections, including Texas.The anticipated size of the presidential candidate field could also upend traditional primary dynamics. President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton won the 2008 and 2016 Democratic nominations due to consolidated support from Southern black women. In 2020, two African-Americans are planning campaigns, and other would-be candidates have spent parts of the last year stumping with such high-profile black gubernatorial candidates such as Stacey Abrams in Georgia and Andrew Gillum in Florida.The geography for primaries will likely mean the voters critical to winning the presidential nomination will be considerably different from the electorate that carried the party to sweeping victories in the 2018 midterm elections, when Democrats flipped 40 House Republican seats and regained the chamber’s majority….California, Texas and seven other states have set March 3 contests and more—including Georgia, where black voters make up more than half the Democratic electorate—could move to that date as well, said Josh Putnam, a University of North Carolina-Wilmington lecturer who tracks the presidential nominating calendar.Also upending the traditional focus on Iowa and New Hampshire is a heavier emphasis on early voting, a process that has become more popular with each election. Millions of California voters will receive their ballots 29 days before its primary, on the same day as the Iowa caucuses. Vermont’s early voting will begin Jan. 18, two weeks before Iowans choose a candidate.
California politics might benefit, but so will the left-wing Democrat candidates, given California’s penchant for supporting far left-wingers. And so, the Democrats will swing further away from the partisan middle in picking someone to oppose Trump.
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