California moves its presidential primary to March
SACRAMENTO — Backing an effort for California to claim a bigger share of the attention from presidential candidates, Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill moving the state’s primary elections to early March.
Brown’s decision, announced without fanfare on Wednesday, means the state will hold its presidential primary on March 3, 2020. It’s a reversal from a decision he made in 2011 to push the state’s primary elections back until June, after years of trying — and failing — to entice major candidates to bring their campaigns to California instead of smaller, more rural states.
Democrats who embraced the push for an early primary said they were motivated in part by the election of President Donald Trump, whose successful bid for the Republican Party nomination was well on its way to reality by the time California voters cast ballots on June 7, 2016.
“We have a greater responsibility and a greater role to promote a different sort of agenda at the national level,” said Democratic state Sen. Ricardo Lara, the author of the bill. “We need to have a greater influence at the national level.”
The new law also moves California’s congressional and legislative primaries to March, a change that some have suggested could make it difficult for challengers to raise money and quickly put together a credible campaign for challenging established incumbents.
Under current projections, California’s primary would come fifth in the presidential nominating process in 2020 — following caucuses in Iowa and Nevada and primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Lara said he realizes that the Democratic National Committee may not like the state moving its election up to the early slot, but that he hopes party officials will work with California officials over the next few years to accommodate the change.
“California’s role has clearly changed,” he said.
California first tried the March primary in 1996. But by Election Day, 27 states had already held their own presidential primary or caucus, passing over California — one of the most expensive places to buy political advertising time in the nation.