Current Primary Summary
Updated 11/26/2007
New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner has set the date of the New Hampshire Presidential Primary for Tuesday, January 8, 2008. The filing period for the New Hampshire Presidential Primary took place from October 15 through November 2, 2007.
In 2006, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) published their dates for the first Democratic nominating contests for the 2008 election: January 14 – Iowa caucus; January 19 – Nevada caucus; January 22 – New Hampshire primary; and January 29 – South Carolina. While the DNC has indicated that other states that schedule their nominating contests before February 1 will face delegate sanctions, the Florida legislature voted in May 2007 to move their primary to January 29, 2008 – the same day as South Carolina’s primary.
The Republican National Committee does not issue a prescriptive schedule.
New Hampshire state law requires the New Hampshire Secretary of State to set the date of the New Hampshire primary at least seven days prior to any other similar contest. For more information about the state laws that govern the New Hampshire Primary, please read the NH Secretary of State’s 2008 NH Primary information sheet (PDF).
The 2008 primary schedule has developed a national primary on February 5, with as many as two dozen states holding primaries that day.