page_title: History of the United States Democratic Party
section_title: 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries
hierarchical_section_title: History of the United States Democratic Party / Presidency of Donald Trump (2017–present) / 2020 United States elections / 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries
caption_attribution_description: Cropped official portrait of Vice President Joe Biden in his West Wing Office at the White House, Jan. 10, 2013. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)
context_page_description: The Democratic Party is the oldest voter-based political party in the world and the oldest existing political party in the United States. The party's modern institutions were formed in the 1830s and 1840s, but it traces its history and heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party of the 1790s-1820s. Known as the party of the "common man, ” the early Democratic Party stood for individual rights and state sovereignty, but opposed banks and high tariffs. During the Second Party System under Presidents Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren and James K. Polk, the Democrats usually bested the opposition Whig Party by narrow margins.
  From 1860 to 1932 in the era of the American Civil War to the Great Depression, the opposing Republican Party, organized in the mid-1850s from the ruins of the Whig Party and some other smaller splinter groups, was dominant in presidential politics. The Democrats elected only two Presidents during this period: Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson.
context_section_description: The 2020 primaries saw an unprecedentedly bloated and competitive field of 29 major candidates vie for the party's nomination, with the contest ultimately narrowing down to a binary race between Senator Sanders and former Vice President Biden after Super Tuesday —— a similar dynamic to the entirety of the 2016 primary. However, the two-person period of this contest was never extended as long as in 2016, as the consolidation of the moderate half of the party, a series of wins in key swing states by Biden, and, moreover, the COVID-19 global pandemic, allowed Biden to finally defeat his last rival, Senator Sanders. Representing the more centrist,  moderate side of the party, Vice President Biden positioned himself as an elder statesman ready to lead in moments of crisis that demanded strong executive experience. While he lacked charisma, Biden promised electability and the defeat of Trump. He thus was able to contrast himself starkly against the left-leaning platforms of Senators Sanders and Warren by promising to protect the Affordable Care Act against progressive efforts to further expand and nationalize it. This choice between the nostalgia and stability of more centrist Obama era policies, perceived by many as a powerful asset against President Trump in November, and the high-risk, high-reward uncertainty of a far bolder, historically progressive vision became the defining narrative of the primary season.
  In terms of voter support, Biden dominated with African Americans, suburban whites, voters over the age of 50, and newly minted conservative Democrats who had joined the party after leaving the GOP in response to Trump and the stigma attached to his policies.  Senator Sanders led a similarly diverse, but comparatively more urban, coalition of Latinos, Asian Americans, Muslim Americans, staunch progressives, and voters of all races under the age of 50. However, many rural white working class voters that had supported him in his 2016 campaign had switched to either Independent or Republican status. The gender balance between the Biden and Sanders campaigns was relatively the same, with equal parts women and men supporting each —— a key difference between 2016 and 2020. Among the other major candidates, Elizabeth Warren's base consisted primarily of middle-aged, highly educated white voters in coastal regions; Michael Bloomberg scooped up some votes on Super Tuesday within demographics similar to Joe Biden's (sans the strength with African Americans); Pete Buttigieg performed well in the first few primaries with moderate liberals and wealthier white voters, however, his campaign was doomed by a lack of appeal to minorities; and Amy Klobuchar proved to have relatively strong, albeit very limiting, Midwestern regional appeal.
caption: Joe Biden takes the 2020 nomination against Trump.
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