How will early campaign visits to traditional states influence the 2028 race given the newly restructured nominating calendar?

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Early visits to New Hampshire and Iowa will still matter in 2028, but they will shape the race differently because the Democratic calendar has been redesigned to give more weight to a broader and more diverse set of early states. Under the proposed Democratic lineup, South Carolina would vote first on Jan. 22, followed by Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan and Virginia before Super Tuesday. That means candidates can no longer rely mainly on the old Iowa-New Hampshire model to build early momentum. Instead, they will need to prove appeal across Black, Latino, union, suburban, younger and working-class voters much earlier in the process. For candidates like Chris Van Hollen, trips to traditional states still serve a clear purpose: they help with donor outreach, activist networking, media attention and the testing of campaign messages. New Hampshire remains especially valuable because it is still in the early window and preserves its role as a close-up test of candidate skills. Iowa, even though removed from the Democratic early window, can still offer organizational contacts and symbolic signals about seriousness. But the practical payoff of those visits is reduced unless they are paired with strong organizing in South Carolina and Nevada, where the calendar now front-loads constituencies Democrats say better reflect their coalition. The revised schedule also adds more delegates before March, so momentum will likely come less from one surprise result in a traditional …

Van Hollen Tests 2028 White House Bid as Democrats Debate Post-Trump Direction

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Van Hollen Tests 2028 White House Bid as Democrats Debate Post-Trump Direction

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