Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Max As top Democratic officials considered how to restructure the party’s primary schedule for 2024, the White House offered a bit of private advice: kick the can down the road. White House officials let it be known to the Democratic National Committee they supported delaying a final decision until after the midterms, fearful that anything the committee decided would upset Democrats in key states leading up to the elections. “We have so many people in our party that are focused on 2024 and they can’t even focus on what’s in front of us and that’s 2022,” said one Democrat close to the process. A Biden adviser said that the decision to delay was made by the Rules and Bylaws committee, not the White House. But two people familiar with the exchange said their preference was made clear, with one adding that President JOE BIDEN simply had been unable to devote much time to the matter. This past week, the DNC decided it would make a calendar update after the midterms. The choice of which states will lead the 2024 Democratic primary is not an insignificant one for Biden as he plans a re-election campaign amid consistent discontent from within the ranks and questions about his political viability. It’s also a major concern for the party’s Senate candidates, particularly those running in New Hampshire and Nevada (and to a lesser degree down-ballot candidates in Iowa) who could see voter enthusiasm dip if their states are bumped back. The party is trying to narrow down a list of 17 states and territories vying for one of the first four or five spots. Its choice will not just matter in 2024, but likely for many elections to come — just as the DNC’s decision to make Iowa the first state in 1972 held for decades. (It is widely expected Iowa’s reign will come to an end in 2024 after its debacle reporting caucus totals led to a delay in results in 2020). The lobbying campaign has gotten intense. “I’m getting swag!” explained DONNA BRAZILE, one of the members of the DNC panel determining state order. She said that she’s partial to southern states but that hasn't stopped others from trying. “I have maple syrup from Michigan. I have popcorn from Illinois. I have all kinds of trinkets from Nevada. Peanuts from Georgia, too.” She’s been getting so many calls that she implored West Wing Playbook, “Please don’t give out my cell phone number.” A Biden adviser told us that the president had been updated on the broad number of states expressing interest in the early window, but that he was “laser focused on his agenda and getting out” before the midterms. Even so, two people familiar with the exchanges relayed that the president has on more than one occasion quizzed people in his orbit about the possibility of his home state of Delaware going earlier — even first. The rationale, according to Delaware’s top public and private boosters, is that it’s small but also diverse, it has a revitalized riverfront to host events and its media market crosses into several other states including Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey. They also note, repeatedly, that it’s just a two-hour Amtrak ride from Washington. In Delaware’s own pitch video to the DNC, state Sen. SARAH MCBRIDE made several references to Biden himself and the Amtrak rides he took to and from D.C. for decades. She closed with a quote from the president calling Delaware a “true microcosm of America.” McBride joked that Delaware is also known as the First State, though “we’d be cool with second, or third or even fourth.” At a June DNC meeting, Delaware Sen. CHRIS COONS was on hand to make the hard sell, along with the state’s governor, JOHN CARNEY. Coons told party leaders that Delaware has a long history of overseeing “a tight and well-run electoral system.” He also stressed that Delaware was trying to launch itself into the first grouping of states, and not explicitly pushing to lead off. “I do not speak for him, but my gut hunch is that that president would welcome the challenge of demonstrating he could win his home state overwhelmingly,” Coons told the committee. Were Delaware to actually be chosen as an early primary state, the conventional wisdom would be that Biden would win in a rout — should he run and be challenged in the primary. And there would very well be critics arguing it would be a waste of a choice for that reason. But others involved in the selection process were cooler on the apparent advantages the state would provide its favorite son in a reelect. “For an incumbent president, having their state early there is no upside and only downside. They run a real risk of being embarrassed — and you can be embarrassed with somebody getting 35 percent of the vote,” ELAINE KAMARCK, the Brookings Institution scholar and delegate expert who has served on the DNC’s Rules Committee since 1997, told us. “If you win your home state, nobody cares. You don’t get any momentum in the later states, which is the whole point in the early states.” That said, Kamarck acknowledged that the thinking could change if Biden doesn’t run in 2024. Under that scenario, he could very well petition for Delaware to be moved up in the primary calendar as a legacy marker for him. “There is a case to be made for Delaware,” Kamarck said. “My sense is when we hear from the president that will be very important. Everybody on there is a fan of the president and what he says matters.” MESSAGE US — Are you JIM CHO, White House director of congressional outreach? We want to hear from you! And we’ll keep you anonymous if you’d like. Or if you think we missed something in today’s edition, let us know and we may include it tomorrow. Email us at westwingtips@politico.com . MEA CULPA: In Monday’s top, we made a typo. It’s “gutturally,” not “gutterly.” Alex, from his gut, feels dumb about the error.
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