2016 Democratic Primary

The 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries and caucuses were a series of electoral contests organized by the Democratic Party to select the delegates to determine the nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The Democratic nominee will challenge other presidential candidates in the national election to succeed President Albert Winston at noon on January 20, 2017, following his two terms in office. A total of six major candidates entered the race; Governor Irina Kuznetsov of New Hampshire, Senator Gianna Carrollton of Ohio, Governor Robert Danders of Vermont, Mayor Jeremy Beaumont of New York, Governor Kailen Murray of Indiana, and Senator Anthony Conti of Maryland. Also entering the race was, joke candidate, Dick Kirk who managed to win 44 delegates.

The "serious" political candidates did not begin to enter the race until after the Iowa caucuses, won by Dick Kirk. Kuznetsov was victorious in New Hampshire, and Carrollton in Nevada, and then South Carolina, going into Super Tuesday. Governor Murray dropped out of the race after the South Carolina primaries, before Super Tuesday, while new candidate Jeremy Beaumont entered the race.

Super Tuesday started a clear trend for the candidates in the race, with Kuznetsov and Carrollton vying tightly for the lead, and Beaumont and Danders flipping between third and fourth. Murray, who had previously endorsed Carrollton, then re-entered the race before the Superb Tuesday primaries, winning Florida, and pushing himself into the second tier of candidates with that performance, while Governor Danders began to slip.

The balance of the race was upset as Kuznetsov, having managed to open up something of a lead over Senator Carrollton, and looking to be in a strong position to ultimately take the nomination, suffered a severe stroke and fell into a coma, knocked off of the campaign trail. A second disruptive force hit the campaign with the WAC controversy, with the act, one shutting down Planned Parenthood clinics and removing funding from abortion providers, passed after a great deal of controversy, leading to splits in the Democratic party. A new candidate, Senator Conti, emerged, backed by California Governor Ray Ramirez, while Carrollton began to suffer in the polls over the controversy, not winning another state until New Mexico. Kuznetsov's coma proved a boon for Danders, however, and he began to win several small states.

Mayor Beaumont eventually left the race after the Indiana primaries, while Murray, who had won only Wyoming since Florida, did so as well. Heading into the final portion of the campaign, Kuznetsov recovered enough to come back onto the campaign trail, and with Carrollton's repeated low performances, a mix of her front-porch campaign and the WAC, the two took the lion's share of the delegates in the final primaries, with Senator Conti receiving some in California, and Kuznetsov the plurality, opening up a significant lead with Carrollton's fall. Despite this, and superdelegate efforts, no candidate had the required majority of delegates, leading to a contested convention.

At the convention, Kuznetsov, the clear front-runner, suffered a medical issue on-stage, and sent a letter to the convention endorsing Senator Carrollton, if she was not to be voted for. Carrollton, at this point, was widely considered to be a lock for the nomination, but several hours later, near midnight, both she and Senator Conti, to the shock of many, backed out in order to endorse Governor Danders, who eventually managed to be appointed on the seventh ballot. After several days of disagreement, Senator Carrollton was chosen as his running mate after a series of ballots, prompting a walk-out of the convention.