What do you do when you are one of the guardians of your state’s most
precious political and cultural institution — the very thing that
defines New Hampshire — and the president you love and the party you’ve
served your whole life, tells you to destroy it?

To find out, we spoke to Ray Buckley. Buckley has served as the chairman
of the New Hampshire Democratic Party since 2007 and he was involved in
every New Hampshire presidential primary campaign since he was an
organizer for Jimmy Carter.

A big part of his job is protecting the status of the New Hampshire
primary, which by state law is required to be the first in the nation.
Any Democrat who wants to be president makes a point of becoming Ray
Buckley’s friend. When Buckley got a call in December from Sen. Jeanne
Shaheen, the worst part was that it was Joe Biden who had screwed him.
Biden had decided to end New Hampshire’s decades-long reign by hosting
the first presidential primary — at least for the Democrats. In its
place: South Carolina, the state that resurrected Biden’s candidacy in
2020.

On this episode of Playbook Deep Dive, Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza
speaks to Buckley about New Hampshire’s fight to preserve their
first-in-the-nation primary.

Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Ray Buckley is the chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party
Afra Abdullah is associate producer for POLITICO audio.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Brook Hayes is senior editor for POLITICO audio.
Adam Allington is senior producer for POLITICO audio.
Jenny Ament is executive producer for POLITICO audio.