By Laura Haight
President, DWGC

When all is said and done in New Hampshire, President Biden will likely have some 68 percent of the vote on the strength of a citizen-generated write-in campaign. Organizer Kathy Sullivan said a strong Biden showing in the state was important “to counteract the narrative that’s out there that he’s not popular” and to signal that he had the support of the Democratic base.

Almost daily I hear from someone who is planning to vote for Haley in the Republican primary, presumably some misguided move to hurt Trump.

In reality, Democrats voting Republican in this primary will have no impact on Trump but will hurt Biden.

Here’s why.

The South Carolina Democratic Party will tell you that we have to show strength in this primary in order to be the First in the Nation again in 2028. That is certainly true.

But I think there are some other reasons – and I stress these are my opinions and are not sanctioned messaging of any arm of the Democratic Party.

Of course, despite two challengers who will appear on the ballot (Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips and Marianne Willamson), Biden will handily win in South Carolina and in August will be the Democratic nominee. But the question isn’t will he win here, but how strong is his victory. The president has been fighting headwinds since the day he took office – just two weeks after the attempted insurrection. He has served honorably trying to find bipartisan pathways for important legislation despite the fact that up to half the country thinks he was not legitimately elected.

What is important is not that he win the SC primary but that we turn out in significant numbers to leave no doubt that Democrats are fully behind Joe Biden. To show that we don’t buy into the misrepresentation that Biden is weak, that he’s ineffective, that he is too old to do the job, etc. As the New York Times reported in its New Hampshire coverage: Upcoming primaries here and in Nevada and Michigan “will test the Biden campaign’s ability to mobilize its most loyal voters, as polling has shown signs of weakness with core base constituencies.”

In 2020, Biden was languishing behind by the time we held our primary on February 29. Against seven challengers, Biden beat his closest contender (Bernie Sanders) by nearly 29 points. It was a victory, fueled by the support of African American voters, that pushed the Biden train up the mountain and kickstarted him to victory in November. There were 537,200 Democratic votes cast.

Now, we get the chance to do this again. To provide the momentum that sets the tone for the rest of the country. OR, we can vote in the Republican primary, where Trump is currently 30 points ahead of Nikki Haley. We can choose to take this meaningless vote that has no chance of changing the outcome of our primary or stopping Donald Trump from winning the GOP nomination. A wasted vote; a dangerous one.

Because what we may succeed in doing, is diluting our power as Democrats. It may send the wrong message to the rest of the country, impact our ability to be First in the Nation in 2028 (something that will cost the SCDP and county parties a lot of money that supports candidates), and weaken Biden’s position at a crucial time.

We always make a statement with our votes: For women’s reproductive rights, against school censorship and book banning, for free and fair elections, for supporting our allies, for diversity and inclusion of all, for extending rights not taking them away.

In this election, we aren’t choosing between two candidates; we are choosing between two Americas. Our votes on Feb. 3 (early voting is currently open until Feb. 2) will tell the country where Democrats stand. I hope it is firmly and unequivocally on the side of democracy, decency, diversity, and honor.