It's time to move New York's primaries to Super Tuesday | Opinion

December 4, 2025

Originally published in LoHud on December 4, 2025 .

Outside of being an automated teller machine for candidates, New York has next to no say in choosing our presidential nominees. Every four years, the states that vote between early January when caucuses and primaries kick off, and early March when, in one day, over one third of delegates are awarded — are the deciders. New York’s presidential primaries have been all over the calendar since 2016, in mid-April, late June, and early April respectively — after the race was completely or effectively decided without our input. The reality is the eventual nominee is historically 74% of the way to the winning threshold by the end of March and 85% of Democratic primaries have been effectively decided by that same time.

These practical realities have relegated New York’s role in the process to that of a political piggy bank. It’s true that candidates are in New York, but they’re in and out of fundraisers in Manhattan penthouses and the luxurious summer estates of the Hamptons. Off the big-money circuit, though rich in delegates, New York doesn’t strategically mean much.

We can change that.

It’s time New York voted on Super Tuesday.

To that end and simultaneous to the Democratic National Committee establishing presidential primary rules in the coming months, we have introduced legislation to permanently ensure New York’s relevancy in the nominating process starting in 2028.

The choice between decider and afterthought, to most, would appear obvious. It requires, however, a change in our state law that determines placement on the political calendar. Plus, in our party’s case, a willingness to give up a handful of “bonus” delegates granted by the Democratic National Committee to states that voluntarily sacrifice relevance for what in practicality amounts to no more than a few additional national convention passes for insiders. The consolation prize doesn’t actually serve New York State as a whole, or the Democratic Party itself, and does nothing to ensure that New Yorkers are shaping as strong of a candidate as possible.

Other large, diverse states like Texas and California — as well as Colorado, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia — all voted together on Super Tuesday in the last presidential primary. That means states similar to New York with multiple major media markets, a representative spread of urban, suburban, exurban and rural voters, and a broad range of economies, received an outsized share of media attention (and advertising dollars) and leveraged the greatest amount of national political influence in shaping the overall race’s outcome. Contenders were vetted by those states’ press corps and hired local talent, creating jobs and training the next wave of party organizers. Serious candidates built strong coalitions and tapped into influential networks, like labor unions and activist organizations. They had to do well with truly diverse ranges of voters across all races, ethnicities, economics, age groups, and education levels as well as mixes of — in our party at least — progressives and moderates.

Super Tuesday narrows the field by eliminating underperformers and vanity candidates. Adding New York to the schedule will make it that much more so. To sprint out of a Super Tuesday that includes New York, a candidate needs to have a built-out staff, an impressive roster of pledged delegates, millions of votes banked, high name recognition, significant financial resources, and have perfected the ability to run a near-national effort. To prevail means you’re battle tested, on-message and nearly general election-ready.

Here’s another fact, this one alarming if you’re a New York Democrat: while all 50 states swung toward Donald Trump in 2024 relative to his 2020 performance, none did so more dramatically than New York, where Trump improved on his margin by over 10 percentage points. While Democrats did net several U.S. House seats last year, largely papering over our party’s underperformance, the very significant shift — a disconcerting pattern when you also consider how tight our Governor’s race was in 2022 — requires a series of responses. A competitive Democratic presidential primary would inject immeasurable energy, resourcing, organizing, and party infrastructure into our state at a critical time, providing Democrats with an enormous boost to help reverse what has become an extremely troubling trendline.

For Democrats, it’s also notable that while seven of our state’s congressional districts are potentially competitive, there are an additional four battleground seats in neighboring New Jersey and Pennsylvania that are, in whole or part, captured by the New York City media market. Moving the state’s presidential primary to the first Tuesday in March will ensure candidates and party messaging are showcased in some of the country’s most electorally pivotal communities.

There is no downside to our legislation mandating New York votes for presidential nominees on Super Tuesday. There is no additional taxpayer burden. There are no onerous complexities.

We are in a crisis moment in which national elections are under threat, and our party must effectively respond to broader assaults on our democracy, economy and way of life. But by moving this bill to the floor during the 2026 legislative session, New York’s Democratic legislature can take a vote with national implications. We can ensure that our constituents can have a much greater say in choosing our fighter and shaping our national future as the ultimate testing ground for winning candidates.

James Skoufis, a Democrat and DNC member, represents New York’s 42nd state Senate District. Landon Dais, a Democrat, represents New York’s 77th Assembly District.