Presidential candidate Deval Patrick joined Boston Public Radio in Manchester, N.H., on Friday. The former governor of Massachusetts gave his thoughts on whether New Hampshire should have the first primary election in the country.
“We’ll have time and we should take the time after this cycle to rethink this whole thing," Patrick said. "If I had my druthers, we’d all vote on the same day and maybe there would be less emphasis placed on this whole idea of momentum coming from places that don’t necessarily represent the whole of the nation.”
Candidates of color have complained to the Democratic National Committee that the rules to get on the debate stage are skewed against minorities. Patrick, who had a late entry into the 2020 presidential race, spoke about his feelings on being the last African-American presidential candidate.
“It troubles me. There was always going to be a set of rules to try to narrow gradually within the party who would get to participate in the thing," he said. "When we realize that those rules weren’t working to actually display the range of talent in the race, then we should reconsider those rules.”
The DNC has said that they’re willing to change the rules by eliminating the individual donor requirement and doubling the polling threshold.
