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New Jersey is a wallflower during presidential primary season.

Its June primary comes too late to help choose the nominee, so candidates skip the state and campaign elsewhere. And the last two New Jerseyans to seek the presidency, Republican Gov. Chris Christie and Democratic U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, long had dropped out before their home state voters even got to go to the polls.

Now some state Democrats want to make New Jersey a player in presidential politics.

State Party Chair Leroy Jones Jr. asked the Democratic National Committee to make New Jersey one of the first primary states as the committee looks at changing its calendar, and state Sen. Richard Codey, a former governor, said he would introduce legislation that would move the states primary to the third week in February.

Our party cannot cling to outdated traditions that do not help us reach new voters and motivate the diverse coalition of supporters needed to win elections and enact our pro-middle class agenda, Jones wrote to national party chair Jaime Harrison, who attended Yale University with Booker. New Jersey has everything that our party needs to fulfill this important role.

Jones cited the states diversity, with double-digit percentages of Black, Latino and Asian residents; and its geography that includes large cities, suburban towns and rural counties.

And Codey, D-Essex, said moving the primary up would help build relationships with the presidential candidates, which could translate into more federal aid and other support.

The state traditionally has been one of the last to vote, except in 2008, when the primary was held on Super Tuesday in February and Democratic voters picked Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama. Four years later, the primary was returned to June.

Giving New Jersey an early primary slot isnt such a far-fetched idea, said Chris Lehane, a veteran of Al Gores 2000 presidential run.

Lehane wouldnt replace Iowa and New Hampshire, which he said force candidates to engage in retail politicking and therefore deserve their early spots.

What Iowa and New Hampshire do really, really well is demonstrate whether a candidate has the retail skills to be successful, he said. These retail skills are really important in terms of how you can actually work with Congress, your ability to work with world leaders.

But New Jersey could provide another key test for candidates, Lehane said.

If you think running for office is like cultivating a garden, the Garden State would make a lot of sense, he said.

Lehane said the states primary could serve as an arbiter of how well a candidate can communicate to a large audience, especially one as diverse as New Jerseys, an audience that reflects what the nation looks like.

New Jersey is sandwiched between two major media markets: New York City and Philadelphia.

Its a visual age that we live in, Lehane said. The modern presidency is really running a content platform. Theres a lot to be said, in addition to the retail stuff, for having a state or subset of states that would be able to prove that ability to run a content machine or a content platform.

Jones said New Jerseys compactness would make Iowa superfluous.

Our state is noteworthy for its compact size as the fourth-smallest state in the nation, which would save candidates valuable travel time and resources and encourage the kind of retail campaigning that has always been a hallmark of the Democratic presidential primary process, he said.

Besides, candidates would get to meet a lot more potential voters, Codey said.

I have more people on my block where I grow up that vote in a primary than Iowa, he said.

Codeys bill would need to pass both the Democratic-controlled state Senate and Assembly and be signed by Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat.

Murphys office deferred comment to Jones on Thursday.

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Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him at @JDSalant.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him at @johnsb01.

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Top Democrat pushes for N.J to hold one of the earliest presidential primaries in 2024 - NJ.com