2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries

**Nominee before election**Hillary Clinton

Presidential primaries and caucuses are to be organized by the Democratic Party to select the *TBC* pledged delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention to be held on August 17–20 to determine the party's nominee for president in the 2020 United States presidential election. The elections will take place in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, five U.S. territories, and Democrats Abroad, and will occur between February 3 and August 11.

## Background

After Hillary Clinton's loss in the previous election, many felt the Democratic Party lacked a clear leading figure. Divisions remained in the party following the 2016 primaries, which pitted Clinton against Bernie Sanders. Between the 2016 election and the 2018 midterm elections, Senate Democrats generally shifted to the political left in relation to college tuition, healthcare, and immigration. The 2018 elections saw the Democratic Party regain the House of Representatives for the first time in eight years, picking up seats in both urban and suburban districts.

### Reforms since 2016

On August 25, 2018, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) members passed reforms to the Democratic Party's primary process in order to increase participation and ensure transparency. State parties are encouraged to use a government-run primary whenever available and increase the accessibility of their primary through same-day or automatic registration and same-day party switching. Caucuses are required to have absentee voting, or to otherwise allow those who cannot participate in person to be included.

Independent of the results of the primaries and caucuses, the Democratic Party, from its group of party leaders and elected officials, also appointed 771 unpledged delegates (superdelegates) to participate in its national convention.

In contrast to all previous election cycles since superdelegates were introduced in 1984, superdelegates will no longer have the right to cast decisive votes on the convention's first ballot for the presidential nomination. They will be allowed to cast non-decisive votes if a candidate has clinched the nomination before the first ballot, or decisive votes on subsequent ballots in a contested convention. In that case, the number of votes required shall increase to a majority of pledged and superdelegates combined. Superdelegates are not precluded from publicly endorsing a candidate before the convention.

There were also a number of changes to the process of nomination at the state level. A decline in the number of caucuses occurred after 2016, with Democrats in Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Washington all switching from various forms of caucuses to primaries (with Hawaii, Kansas, and North Dakota switching to party-run "firehouse primaries"). This has resulted in the lowest number of caucuses in the Democratic Party's recent history, with only three states (Iowa, Nevada, and Wyoming) and four territories (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas, and U.S. Virgin Islands) using them. In addition, six states were approved in 2019 by the DNC to use ranked-choice voting in the primaries: Alaska, Hawaii, Kansas, and Wyoming for all voters; Iowa and Nevada for absentee voters. Rather than eliminating candidates until a single winner is chosen, voters' choices would be reallocated until all remaining candidates have at least 15%, the threshold to receive delegates to the convention.

### Candidate threshold

Candidates who received under 15% of the votes in a state or district got no delegates from that area. Candidates who got 15% or more of the votes divided delegates in proportion to their votes. These rules apply at the state level to state delegates and within each district for those delegates. The 15% threshold was established in 1992 to limit "fringe" candidates. The threshold now means that any sector of the party (moderate, progressive, etc.) which produces many candidates, thus dividing supporters' votes, may win few delegates, even if it wins a majority of votes.

## Candidates

Major candidates in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries are those who hold or have held significant elective office or are receiving substantial media coverage.

Cicero, Illinois
TBC