On July 6, former U.S. Senator Alan Dixon (D-Illinois) died at 86. See this obituary. Senator Dixon was the most persistent advocate of federal legislation setting up regional presidential primaries. He introduced such bills in 1987 (S.1786), 1989 (S.377), and 1991 (S.288). The bills would have divided up the United States into presidential primary regions. Each state within a region would hold presidential primaries on the same date, between March and June. The dates for each region would alternate and be set in the year before a presidential election year.
Senator Dixon was defeated in the Democratic primary for re-nomination in 1992, and since then no member of Congress has energetically worked for the idea, although variants of bill have been introduced since then, most recently in 2007.
Unlike some plans, Senator Dixon’s bills did not give favored exemptions for any particular state, including New Hampshire.