Program Information

Since the 1920s New Hampshire has held the first presidential primary in each electoral cycle. It achieved this distinction by accident, but today guards its status with great vigilance.

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Transcript

Lead: Since the 1920s New Hampshire has held the first presidential primary in each electoral cycle. It achieved this distinction by accident, but today guards its status with great vigilance.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: Primaries, preliminary nominating elections at local, state and national levels, have been around since the first part of the 20th century. They arose because of the needs of political parties to vet or recruit attractive candidates that could win in the general elections. Whichever party was the most unified and focused had a better chance of winning in November.

As early as 1796, Congressman of each party began holding their own "caucuses" to put forward effective candidates, but caucuses are easily dominated by party insiders and by the beginning of the 20th century reformers were calling for primaries at all levels. In 1904 Florida became the first state to use the primary as an alternative to the caucus and by 1916, twenty-five states were holding presidential primaries.

Not until 1952 were voters permitted to actually vote for a presidential candidate in sort of a "beauty contest." This shift took place in New Hampshire. That state, by pure accident, had already become the first presidential primary on the election calendar in 1920. The New Hampshire legislature had originally set its presidential primary for May, but changed it to March when it was pointed out that New Hampshire’s large rural population would be busy plowing fields in May. A primary at that time would be very inconvenient. New Hampshire chose March and has jealously guarded its position as hosting the first Presidential primary ever since.

Many states have envied New Hampshire’s lock on this privileged status. For a small state, New Hampshire gets a level of influence and attention out of all proportion to its size and population. As other states have pushed back their primaries to dates earlier in the political calendar to capture some of this early influence, New Hampshire has raised the stakes and moved its primary date back to match their moves. This competition has shifted the national political calendar further back in the electoral cycle. Like it or not, in part thanks to New Hampshire, the U.S. seems to be moving into the era of the perpetual campaign.

Research assistance by John Whalen.

At the University of Richmond, I'm Dan Roberts.

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