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Former NBC News host Chuck Todd said Monday that the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) primary calendar looked as though the national Democratic Party was trying to thwart a progressive insurgent candidate from breaking through in 2028.
During his podcast, “The Chuck ToddCast,” the ex-NBC host said the schedule looked like it was made to make life harder for a progressive candidate.
“The more I study this map, the more I think, whether intentionally or simply by consequence — though I don’t think there’s any accidents in presidential politics — this calendar is intended to make life harder for an insurgent progressive. That’s its intent,” he said.
“The sequence itself is the story, right?” he continued. “Opening with South Carolina and closing with Virginia, a state that has been very friendly to Democrats, but not very friendly to progressive Democrats, right? But the sequence here does tell you something: South Carolina, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan, Virginia — not a place that’s home to many super progressive electorates, right?”
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Chuck Todd appears on his final show as chair of “Meet the Press” in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, Sep. 10, 2023. Ken Martin attends the event “Celebrities And National Leaders At the DNC Winter Meeting For Stand Up For a Living Wage” at The Three Clubs on Dec. 10, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. (William B. Plowman/NBC via Getty Images; Olga Onate/Getty Images)
Todd said if Wisconsin or Iowa were included in the early primary window, progressives would be happier.
The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC) voted to keep South Carolina as the first-in-the-nation primary on Friday. The panel also voted to allow Nevada, New Hampshire, Michigan, Virginia and New Mexico to hold primaries in the early voting window, before the rest of the states hold nominating contests starting ahead of Super Tuesday.
Axios reported Sunday that progressives were frustrated by the South Carolina decision.
A member of the RBC told the outlet, “the public is swinging left, and the establishment is trying to fight the winds of change.”
The member said putting South Carolina first could “shut down” a progressive candidate early, according to Axios.
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DNC chair Ken Martin makes a speech during the press conference for the DNC site visit at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado on Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
The RBC member also said it was “not a strategy for winning the electorate,” per Axios.
However, the report included some pushback from South Carolina Democratic Party chair Christale Spain.
“I hate that the narrative kind of seems like ‘Well, a progressive can’t win in the South,'” Spain, who also worked for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign, told Axios. “The work that you have to do in the South is retail politics.”
Spain also said that a candidate such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could “absolutely” win in South Carolina.
The DNC did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Todd said during his podcast, “If I were to create a calendar that was going to do two things — make it much harder for a progressive to get the nominee and much harder for progressives to say the calendar was designed to stop a progressive from getting the nomination — this is the calendar I would come up with.”
He added that Virginia, the final state in the early primary window, would become “the last stand for the establishment to stop a progressive if indeed a progressive has the momentum.”
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Former Moderator Chuck Todd appears on “Meet the Press” in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, Aug. 20, 2023. (Photo by: William B. Plowman/NBC via Getty Images)
The ex-NBC moderator said that South Carolina has not been “very open” to progressive socialist campaigns. However, he said in a crowded race, 20% of the vote might be enough to get second place, citing Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and his previous percentage of votes when he ran for president, 26% in 2016 and almost 20% in 2020, finishing in second in South Carolina both times.
Todd said that it was also possible the situation could benefit a progressive, as there might be multiple moderates trying to secure the moderate vote.
“There might be multiple candidates trying to win over the more moderate vote, it splinters and a progressive consolidating the progressive support in the state — well, guess what? Twenty percent is a terrible number in a two-way race. Twenty percent might be a great number in a six-way race,” he said.
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New Hampshire’s National Democratic Party chair Ray Buckley spoke out against the South Carolina pick in a statement on Friday.
“Today’s vote shows that many party insiders have learned nothing from 2024. New Hampshire has a proven track record of testing our candidates with a rigorous, fair, and efficient process, yet those qualities did not prevail. This committee’s vote does not change the realities governing New Hampshire’s primary, which are beyond the control of both this committee and our state party,” Buckley said.
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“Democrats’ guiding North Star should be winning general elections, and New Hampshire Democrats will get back to work focusing on the 2026 elections and addressing the significant challenges facing America’s overwhelmed working class,” he continued. “Today’s vote moves the party further away from that objective.”