Democratic Party wants Biden alone on NC ballot. Will his challengers be added?
As it stands now, President Joe Biden is the only candidate who will show up on the ballot in North Carolina’s 2024 Democratic Party primary election, guaranteeing his victory in the March 5 race.
That’s being contested by other Democratic presidential candidates and may change should the state board of elections take action and vote to add more candidates in early January.
On Dec. 19, the board approved the list of candidates whose names will appear on the ballot for the presidential primary in North Carolina, where voters in each party elect their preferred candidate.
Approved candidates were submitted by the parties, with Democrats solely listing Biden as an option and Republicans listing former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and others. The Libertarian Party also listed a slew of candidates. For the major parties, whoever wins the state primaries get the bulk of the state’s share of delegates, who then vote in the party’s national convention to nominate a candidate into the general election.
Challenges to the decision
Two Democratic candidates, Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson, a self-described spiritual thought leader and author, who also ran for president in 2020, are challenging the state Democratic Party’s decision.
Williamson’s press secretary, Sydney Goldstein, said that Williamson “will fight the NC Democratic Party’s misplaced attempt to protect Biden from a primary.”
“The NC Democratic Party’s action was an effort to silence North Carolina voters’ voice and choice in this upcoming election,” wrote Goldstein, adding that they hoped the state’s board of election would “protect” state voters from this attempt at “circumventing democracy.”
Goldstein pointed out that state law allows the board of elections to include a presidential primary candidate that has been “generally advocated and recognized in the news media throughout the United States or in North Carolina,” unless the candidate opts out.
The board will be meeting on Jan. 2 to “consider adding additional candidates who were not submitted by the political parties,” according to its website.
Meanwhile, Phillips started a petition asking the state party to reconsider its decision, also pointing to the media recognition clause.
Asked about the choice to only include Biden and the candidate challenges, Tommy Mattocks, a Democratic Party spokesman, said in an email that, “In order to get on the ballot, you need to have donors in the state, and be actively campaigning in the state. Neither of them have been here this cycle. This is the standard that we have used in all previous cycles.”
In his petition, Phillips says the party’s nomination rules and laws for the primary do not identify any in-person campaigning or fundraising requirements in North Carolina.
He also said in the petition that since entering the Democratic presidential primary race in late October, he had averaged higher in nationwide head-to-head polls among primary candidates than most of the 15 primary candidates approved in 2020 by the state’s Democratic Party.
Also in 2020, the state’s Republican Party opted to only send Trump’s name. This was challenged by various Republican primary contenders, with the board of election voting to add two more candidates to the GOP list.
Other possible presidential candidates
Next year, voters may also see on their ballot a presidential candidate from the No Labels Party, a new centrist political party backed by former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory.
The party will not be having a primary, as newly recognized parties in the state cannot hold a primary in the first general election following their certification but must hold a convention.
McCrory, in a No Labels news conference in mid-December, said that the party was working on a process for the selection of a presidential ticket.
He said that the majority of Americans do not want a repeat “of the current leaders in the Democratic and Republican party in the presidential primary campaigns. And we firmly believe as a team, that America deserves a better choice.”
The state’s Green Party, which was certified last year following an initial denial, could also still nominate a presidential candidate.
This story was originally published December 28, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
