COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Democrats could vote as early as this week on the order of their primary calendar for the 2028 presidential election, although the decision wouldn’t be final until the full Democratic National Committee agrees.

The panel that sets the party’s voting order could make that determination as early as Friday when it meets in Washington, two people with knowledge of the party’s process but not authorized to discuss it publicly told The Associated Press on Monday.

The Rules and Bylaws Committee has been holding monthly meetings as it considers the order in which states will vote during the 2028 primaries. The panel has heard presentations from a dozen states hoping to kick off the party’s primaries and caucuses, including Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

The calendar isn’t considered set until it’s approved by the full DNC, which is scheduled to meet in August. The DNC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Democrats upended their process for setting their calendar after Iowa’s 2020 Democratic caucus debacle, which led to days of uncertainty over who had won. The party since then has favored more diverse states.

For the 2024 cycle, President Joe Biden led a DNC effort to have South Carolina — which for years has held the party’s first Southern contest — go first overall in the party’s primaries. He cited the state’s more racially diverse population compared to the traditional first-in-the-nation states of Iowa and New Hampshire, which are overwhelmingly white.

Four years earlier, Rep. Jim Clyburn, South Carolina’s lone congressional Democrat and for a time the top Black Democratic lawmaker on Capitol Hill, helped Biden revive his flagging primary campaign and win a resounding victory in the state. He then went on to secure the party’s presidential nomination.

South Carolina’s Democratic leaders have pushed for the state to lead off again, lobbying for support and getting buy-in from Democratic Party chairs in five Southern states. In May, they pressed for South Carolina to reprise its role as the party’s first-in-the-nation contest holder, arguing that the state best represents the initial playing field for presidential candidates to build the coalitions needed to win.

A quarter of the state’s population is Black and about 9% is Hispanic, according to the Census Bureau.

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Cappelletti reported from Washington. Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

Meg Kinnard And Joey Cappelletti, The Associated Press