New Hampshire Democrats are set to take up a question several other state parties have considered in recent weeks: should the party rename its annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner?
Spokesperson Lizzy Price says state party chair Ray Buckley brought the question to the party's executive committee, which referred it to another panel. That committee, Price says, will "discuss the issue and offer any recommendations back to the executive committee."
Democratic Party committees in Connecticut, Georgia and Missouri have decided recentlyto drop the names of the third and seventh presidents from their annual fundraising dinners, citing concerns about the legacies of the two men, each of whom owned slaves. Democrats in South Carolina and Tennessee are set to consider the name question in the coming weeks as well.
Democrats regularly began using the names of Jefferson and Jackson as party symbols in the 1930s. Franklin Roosevelt and other party leaders portrayed the two as champions of the "common man."The New Hampshire Democrats' event has attracted big crowds and high-profile speakers in past years, including former President Bill Clinton in 2014 and then-Maryland governor (and current presidential hopeful) Martin O'Malley in 2013.
