Washington (CNN)North Carolina might be going rogue. The state is on a collision course with the Republican National Committee over when to hold its presidential primary next year. National Republicans -- intent on fashioning an orderly nominating process after several chaotic cycles -- are threatening trigger-happy primary and caucus states with drastic penalties if they attempt to leapfrog the voting line and disrupt the carefully plotted primary calendar. But a handful of North Carolina GOP legislators are vowing to defend a recently passed law that places their state's primary fifth-in-line, in late February 2016, right after Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina raise the curtain on the Republican and Democratic nomination battles.
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Some GOP legislators vow to defend a law that places North Carolina's primary fifth-in-line
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Political professor: "North Carolina is the biggest threat to the calendar now"
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If North Carolina holds its primary before March 1, the RNC says it will chop its delegation down to 12
But @placeholder, the first-in-the-South primary that can make or break a candidate riding high out of Iowa or New Hampshire, holds its contest on a Saturday.