Well, get ready for two primary elections in April 2024. The House has joined the Senate in unanimously passing Senate Bill 149, which will move the 2024 presidential primary for both parties from the fourth Tuesday in April, which is April 23, 2024, to the first Tuesday in April, which is April 2, 2024. The bill passed the Senate unanimoulsy, 38-0-3.
The House already passed another bill, House Bill 215, that will move the state party primaries to April 23, 2024. That bill is currently in the Executive Committee in the Senate. Who knows, maybe the Senate will hold up that bill until next year and then pass it with it applying to the elections in 2026 going forward.
But if that bill passes the Senate, then we will have two primary elections in April 2024.
| SENATE BILL 149 – MOVING THE PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY DUE TO PASSOVER IN 2024 | Currrent Status – Senate Passed 20-0-1. House Passed 38-0-3. Sent to the Governor. |
| House Sponsors – Schwartzkopf, Longhurst, Minor-Brown // Ramone, Yearick | Senate Sponsors – Sokola, Lockman, Townsend // Hocker, Pettyjohn |
| House Yes Votes – Baumbach Bolden Bush Carson Chukwuocha Cooke Dorsey-Walker Griffith Harris Johnson Lambert Longhurst Lynn Minor-Brown Moore Morrison Neal Osienski Parker-Selby Phillips Romer Schwartzkopf Williams Wilson-Anton // Briggs King Collins Dukes Gray Hensley Hilovsky Morris Postles Ramone Short Shupe Smith Spiegelman Yearick | Senate Yes Votes – Brown Hansen Hoffner Huxtable Lockman Mantzavinos McBride Paradee Pinkney Poore Sokola Sturgeon Townsend Walsh // Buckson Hocker Lawson Pettyjohn Richardon Wilson |
| House No Votes – None | Senate No Votes – None |
| House Absents or Not Voting – Heffernan, Matthews, Vanderwende | Senate Absent or Not Voting – Gay |
Section 5 of HB 215 states that it will not go into effect until after the 2024 primaries, so no, there was never a chance of there being two primaries next April. This article (and the previous one) should be corrected to reflect that.
Indeed. I made this comment previously. HB 149 is a one time change due to the overlap with Passover. HB 215 starts after 2024.