COLUMBIA, S.C. _ During a visit to the State House on Tuesday, civil rights icon Rev. Jesse Jackson said South Carolina should hold the nation's first presidential primary in future years.
Jackson, a Greenville native, told members of the S.C. Legislative Black Caucus that Iowa and New Hampshire, which currently are home to the first and second presidential contests, have populations that are not representative of America.
"Iowa and New Hampshire amounts to a white primary in 2020," Jackson said. "The South is not in the forefront, as it should have been."
The civil rights activist, who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., pointed out that the number of people of color registering to vote in South Carolina is growing and has surpassed 1 million voters in 2020.
The Palmetto State is the first state in the Democratic nominating contest where the majority of the Democratic electorate, or two-thirds, is African American. In Iowa and New Hampshire, the vast majority of voters are white.
"We must make South Carolina be number one, not number four, in the process," Jackson said. "We're rural. We're urban. We're black. We're white."
Asked Tuesday about Jackson's call for South Carolina to hold the first primary, Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez, in Charleston at the time, said he thinks the party must discuss it.
"We're going to have a very important conversation about the role of caucuses and order (of state nominating contests) after this election cycle is over, because I think those are conversations whose time has come," Perez said. "As a party we have to discuss that."
Perez added, though, that the party's focus should be on beating President Donald Trump in November.
"I am going to fight my hardest to make sure all of those conversations take place and everybody has a seat at the table so we can make sure our process reflects who the Democratic Party is," Perez said.
Though Jackson has not endorsed any of the 2020 hopefuls competing in the First in the South primary Saturday, he did urge legislators to look beyond U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' description of himself as a "democratic socialist," ahead Tuesday night's Democratic presidential debate in Charleston. Jackson said the United States already has some socialized systems like the postal service.
"We're all living in democratic socialism," Jackson said. "We're leaders. We cannot be confused about what that means."
On Monday, Jackson published an op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times defending democratic socialism. In the article, Jackson pointed out that Sanders gained momentum after his wins in New Hampshire and Nevada and his photo finish in Iowa, where he lost by a slim margin to Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind.
In the op-ed, Jackson rejected criticism from opponents of Sanders who say the Vermont senator's views of taxing the wealthy are "communist." Instead, Jackson pushed for programs championed by Sanders, such as universal or affordable health care, increasing the minimum wage and family leave.
