2016 Democratic Presidential Primaries
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Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...
to select the 4,051 delegates to the
2016 Democratic National Convention The 2016 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention, held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 25 to 28, 2016. The convention gathered delegates of the Democratic Party, the majo ...
held July 25–28 and determine the nominee for president in the
2016 United States presidential election The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket ...
. The elections took place within all fifty U.S. states, the District of Columbia, five U.S. territories, and Democrats Abroad and occurred between February 1 and June 14, 2016. A total of six major candidates entered the race starting April 12, 2015, when former Secretary of State and
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Hillary Clinton formally announced her second bid for the presidency. She was followed by Vermont
Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...
, former Governor of Maryland
Martin O'Malley Martin Joseph O'Malley (born January 18, 1963) is an American lawyer and former politician who served as the 61st Governor of Maryland from 2007 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he was Mayor of Baltimore from 1999 to 2007. O'Malley ...
, former Governor of Rhode Island Lincoln Chafee, former Virginia Senator Jim Webb and
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Professor Lawrence Lessig. A draft movement was started to encourage Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren to seek the presidency, but Warren declined to run, as did incumbent Vice President Joe Biden. Webb, Chafee, and Lessig withdrew prior to the February 1, 2016, Iowa caucuses. Clinton won Iowa by the closest margin in the history of the state's Democratic
caucus A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a specific political party or movement. The exact definition varies between different countries and political cultures. The term originated in the United States, where it can refer to a meeting ...
to date. O'Malley suspended his campaign after a distant third-place finish, leaving Clinton and Sanders as the only two candidates. The race turned out to be more competitive than expected, with Sanders decisively winning New Hampshire, while Clinton subsequently won Nevada and won a landslide victory in South Carolina. Clinton then secured numerous important wins in each of the nine most populous states including California,
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
, Florida, and Texas, while Sanders scored various victories in between. He then laid off a majority of staff after the New York primary and Clinton's multi-state sweep on April 26. On June 6, the Associated Press and NBC News stated that Clinton had become the presumptive nominee after reaching the required number of delegates, including both pledged and unpledged delegates ( superdelegates), to secure the nomination. In doing so, she became the first woman to ever be the presumptive nominee of any major political party in the United States. On June 7, Clinton officially secured a majority of pledged delegates after winning in the California and New Jersey primaries. President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren formally endorsed Clinton on June 9. Sanders confirmed on June 24 that he would vote for Clinton over Donald Trump in the general election and formally endorsed Clinton on July 12 in
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. On July 22, WikiLeaks published the Democratic National Committee email leak, in which DNC operatives seemed to deride Bernie Sanders' campaign and discuss ways to advance Clinton's nomination, leading to the resignation of DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other implicated officials. The leak was
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part of an operation by the
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to undermine Hillary Clinton. Although the ensuing controversy initially focused on emails that dated from relatively late in the primary, when Clinton was already close to securing the nomination, the emails cast doubt on the DNC's neutrality and, according to Sanders operatives and multiple media commentators, showed that the DNC had favored Clinton since early on. This was evidenced by alleged bias in the scheduling and conduct of the debates, as well as controversial DNC–Clinton agreements regarding financial arrangements and control over policy and hiring decisions. Other media commentators have disputed the significance of the emails, arguing that the DNC's internal preference for Clinton was not historically unusual and did not affect the primary enough to sway the outcome.Heersink, Boris (November 4, 2017)
"No, the DNC didn’t 'rig' the Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton"
'' The Washington Post''. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
The controversies ultimately led to the formation of a DNC "unity" commission to recommend reforms in the party's primary process. On July 26, 2016, the
Democratic National Convention The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 ...
officially nominated Clinton for president and a day later, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine for vice president. On November 8, 2016, Republican nominee Donald Trump defeated Clinton in the general election, though Clinton won the popular vote.


Candidates


Nominee


Withdrew at the convention


Withdrew during the primaries


Withdrew before the primaries


Other candidates' results

The following candidates were frequently interviewed by news channels and were invited to forums and candidate debates. For reference, Clinton received 16,849,779 votes in the primaries. Other candidates participated in one or more state primaries without receiving major coverage or substantial vote counts.


Timeline


Background

In the weeks following the re-election of President Obama in the
2012 election This national electoral calendar for 2012 lists the national/ federal elections held in 2012 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *3–4 January: ...
, media speculation regarding potential candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2016 presidential election began to circulate. The speculation centered on the prospects of Clinton, then- Secretary of State, making a second presidential bid in the 2016 election. Clinton had previously served as a
U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...
for New York (2001–09) and was the First Lady of the U.S. (1993–2001). A January 2013 '' Washington Post''– ABC News poll indicated that she had high popularity among the American public. This polling information prompted numerous political pundits and observers to anticipate that Clinton would mount a second presidential bid in 2016, entering the race as the early front-runner for the Democratic nomination. From the party's liberal
left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...
wing came calls for a more
progressive Progressive may refer to: Politics * Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform ** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context * Progressive realism, an American foreign policy par ...
candidate to challenge what was perceived by many within this segment as the party's establishment. Elizabeth Warren quickly became a highly touted figure within this movement as well as the object of a draft movement to run in the primaries, despite her repeated denials of interest in doing so. The MoveOn.org campaign 'Run Warren Run' announced that it would disband on June 8, 2015, opting to focus its efforts toward progressive issues. The draft campaign's New Hampshire staffer, Kurt Ehrenberg, had joined Sanders' team and most of the remaining staffers were expected to follow suit. Given the historical tendency for sitting vice presidents to seek the presidency in election cycles in which the incumbent president is not a candidate, there was also considerable speculation regarding a potential presidential run by incumbent Vice President Joe Biden, who had previously campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in the election cycles of
1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...
and
2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
. This speculation was further fueled by Biden's own expressions of interest in a possible run in 2016. However, on October 21, 2015, speaking from a podium in the Rose Garden with his wife and President Obama by his side, Biden announced his decision not to enter the race, as he was still dealing with the loss of his son, Beau, who died weeks earlier at the age of 47. Biden would become the nominee for the Democratic Party four years later in the
2020 presidential election This national electoral calendar for 2020 lists the national/federal elections held in 2020 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *5 January: **C ...
where he would go on to become the 46th President of the United States after defeating incumbent president Donald Trump in the general election. On May 26, 2015, Sanders officially announced his run as a presidential candidate for the Democratic nomination, after an informal announcement on April 30 and speculation since early 2014. Sanders had previously served as Mayor of
Burlington, Vermont Burlington is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the seat of Chittenden County. It is located south of the Canada–United States border and south of Montreal. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 44,743. It ...
(1981–89), Vermont's sole U.S. Representative (1991–2007) and Vermont's junior Senator (2007–present). He emerged as the biggest rival to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries, backed by a strong
grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...
campaign and a social media following. In November 2014, Jim Webb, a former U.S. Senator who had once served as the
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during the Reagan administration, announced the formation of an exploratory committee in preparation for a possible run for the Democratic presidential nomination. This made Webb the first major potential candidate to take a formal action toward seeking the party's 2016 nomination.
Martin O'Malley Martin Joseph O'Malley (born January 18, 1963) is an American lawyer and former politician who served as the 61st Governor of Maryland from 2007 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he was Mayor of Baltimore from 1999 to 2007. O'Malley ...
, former Governor of Maryland as well as a former
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, made formal steps toward a campaign for the party's nomination in January 2015 with the hiring and retaining of personnel who had served the previous year as political operatives in Iowa – the first presidential nominating state in the primary elections cycle – as staff for his political action committee (PAC). O'Malley had started the "O’ Say Can You See" PAC in 2012 which had, prior to 2015, functioned primarily as fundraising vehicles for various Democratic candidates, as well as for two 2014
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s in Maryland. With the 2015 staffing moves, the PAC ostensibly became a vehicle for O'Malley – who had for several months openly contemplated a presidential bid – to lay the groundwork for a potential campaign for the party's presidential nomination. In August 2015, Lawrence Lessig unexpectedly announced his intention to enter the race, promising to run if his exploratory committee raised $1 million by
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. After accomplishing this, Lessig formally announced his campaign. He described his candidacy as a referendum on electoral reform legislation, prioritizing a single issue: the Citizen Equality Act of 2017, a proposal that couples
campaign finance reform Campaign finance reform may refer to: * Reform of campaign finance Campaign finance, also known as election finance or political donations, refers to the funds raised to promote candidates, political parties, or policy initiatives and referen ...
with other laws aimed at curbing gerrymandering and ensuring voting access.


Overview


February 2016: early primaries

Despite being heavily favored in polls issued weeks earlier, Clinton was only able to defeat Sanders in the first-in-the-nation Iowa Caucus by the closest margin in the history of the contest: 49.8% to 49.6% (Clinton collected 700.47 state delegate equivalents to Sanders' 696.92, a difference of one-quarter of a percentage point). This led to speculation that she won due to six coin-toss tiebreakers all resulting in her favor. However, the only challenge to the caucus' results was in a single precinct, which gave Clinton a fifth delegate. The victory, which was projected to award her 23 pledged national convention delegates (two more than Sanders), made Clinton the first woman to win the Caucus and marked a clear difference from 2008, where she finished in third place behind Obama and John Edwards. Martin O'Malley suspended his campaign after a disappointing third-place finish with only 0.5% of the state delegate equivalents awarded, leaving Clinton and Sanders the only two major candidates in the race. A week later, Sanders won the
New Hampshire primary The New Hampshire presidential primary is the first in a series of nationwide party primary elections and the second party contest (the first being the Iowa caucuses) held in the United States every four years as part of the process of choosi ...
, receiving 60.4% of the popular vote to Clinton's 38%, putting him ahead of Clinton in the overall pledged delegate count by four, and making him the first Jewish candidate of a major party to win a primary. Hillary Clinton's loss in New Hampshire was a regression from 2008, when she defeated Obama, Edwards, and a handful of other candidates including Joe Biden with 39% of the popular vote. Sanders' narrow loss in Iowa and victory in New Hampshire generated speculation about a possible loss for Clinton in Nevada, the next state to hold its caucuses on February 20. For her part, Clinton, who had won the state eight years prior in the
2008 Nevada Democratic caucuses The 2008 Nevada Democratic presidential caucuses took place on January 19, 2008 after having been moved from a later date by the Nevada Democratic Party. The Nevada Democratic Caucus was considered important in determining the eventual party nomi ...
, hoped that a victory would allay concerns about a possible repetition of 2008 when she ultimately lost to Obama despite entering the primary season as the favorite for the nomination. Ultimately, Clinton emerged victorious with 52.6% of the county delegates, a margin of victory similar to her performance in 2008. Sanders, who attained 47.3% of the vote, was projected to receive five fewer pledged delegates than Clinton and the result was not promising for the following weekend's primary in South Carolina, more demographically favorable to Clinton than the prior contests. On February 27, Clinton won the
South Carolina primary The South Carolina presidential primary is an open primary election which has become one of several key early-state United States presidential primary, presidential primaries in the process of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic and Re ...
with 73.5% of the vote, receiving a larger percentage of the African American vote than Barack Obama had eight years earlier – 90% to Obama's 80%.


March 1, 2016: Super Tuesday

The 2016 primary schedule was significantly different from that of 2008. During that election cycle, many states moved their primaries or caucuses to earlier in the calendar to have greater influence over the race. In 2008, February 5 was the earliest date allowed by the Democratic National Committee, leading 23 states and territories to move their elections to that date, the biggest Super Tuesday to ever take place. For 2016, the calendar was more disparate than it was in 2008, with several groups of states voting on different dates, the most important being March 1, March 15, April 26 and June 7. The day with the most contests was March 1, 2016, in which primaries or caucuses were held in 11 states (including six in the Southern United States) and American Samoa. A total of 865 pledged delegates were at stake. Clinton secured victories in all of the southern contests except
Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
. Her biggest victory of the day came in Alabama, where she won 77.8% of the vote against Sanders' 19.2%, although her most significant delegate prize came from Texas, where she received 65.2% of the vote with strong support from non-white as well as white voters. Collectively, the southern states gave Clinton a net gain of 165 pledged delegates. Apart from the South, Clinton also narrowly defeated Sanders in Massachusetts, as well as winning in the territory of American Samoa. Sanders scored comfortable wins in the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses and
Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
primary and won an 86.1%–13.6% landslide in his home state of Vermont - one of only two times either of the two main candidates missed the 15% threshold in a state or territory, with the
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, where Clinton received over 87% of the vote, being the other one. Although the results overall were unfavorable for Sanders, his four wins and narrow loss allowed him to remain in the race in anticipation of more favorable territory in New England, the
Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...
, Mountain States and the Pacific Northwest. At the end of the day, Clinton collected 518 pledged delegates to Sanders' 347, taking her lead to 609–412, a difference of 197 pledged delegates.


Mid-March contests

Sanders found more hospitable ground on the weekend of March 5, 2016, winning caucuses in Kansas, Maine and Nebraska by significant margins. Clinton answered with an even larger win in Louisiana's primary, limiting Sanders' net gain for the weekend to only four delegates. Clinton would also win the Northern Mariana Islands caucus, held the following weekend on March 12. Two states had held nominating contests on March 8 – Michigan and Mississippi – with Clinton heavily favored to win both. Mississippi went for Clinton, as expected, by a landslide margin. The Mississippi primary was the highest vote share Clinton won in any state. However, Sanders stunned by scoring a narrow win in Michigan. Analysts floated a number of theories to explain the failure of the Michigan polling, with most centering on pollsters' erroneous assumptions about the composition of the electorate stemming from the 2008 primary in Michigan not having been contested due to an impasse between the state party and DNC. Although Clinton expanded her delegate lead, some journalists suggested Sanders' upset might presage her defeat in other delegate-rich Midwestern states, such as Missouri, Ohio and Illinois, who voted a week later on March 15, along with North Carolina and Florida, where Clinton was more clearly favored. Clinton was able to sweep all five primaries, extending her pledged delegate lead by around 100 delegates, although Sanders was able to hold Clinton to narrow margins in her birth-state of Illinois and especially Missouri, where Clinton won by a mere 0.2 points. Missouri state law allowed for a possible recount had any of the candidates requested it; however, Sanders forwent the opportunity on the basis that it would not significantly affect the delegate allocation. By the end of the evening, Clinton had expanded her pledged delegate lead to more than 320, several times larger than her greatest deficit in the 2008 primary.


Late March and early April

Following the March 15 primaries, the race moved to a series of contests more favorable for Sanders. On March 21, the results of the Democrats Abroad primary (held March 1–8) were announced. Sanders was victorious and picked up nine delegates to Clinton's four, closing his delegate deficit by five. Arizona, Idaho and Utah held primaries on March 22, dubbed "Western Tuesday" by media. Despite continued efforts by Sanders to close the gap in Arizona after his surprise win in Michigan, Clinton won the primary with 56.3% of the vote. However, Clinton lost both Idaho and Utah by roughly 60 points, allowing Sanders to close his delegate deficit by 25. The next states to vote were Alaska, Hawaii and Washington on March 26, 2016. All three states were considered as favorable for Sanders, and most political analysts expected him to win them all, given the demographics and Sanders' strong performance in previous caucuses. Sanders finished the day with a net gain of roughly 66 delegates over Clinton. His largest win was in Alaska, where he defeated Clinton with 82% of the vote, although the majority of his delegate gain came from the considerably more populous state of Washington, which he won by a 46% margin, outperforming then-Senator Obama's 2008 results, when he defeated Clinton 68%–31%. The Clinton and Sanders campaigns reached an agreement on April 4 for a ninth debate to take place on April 14 (five days before the New York primary) in Brooklyn, New York, which would air on CNN and NY1. On April 5, Sanders won the
Wisconsin primary Elections in Wisconsin are held to fill various local, state, and federal seats. Special elections may be held to fill vacancies at other points in time. In a 2020 study, Wisconsin was ranked as th ...
by 13 and 1/2 percentage points, closing his delegate deficit by 10 more. The Wyoming caucuses were held on April 9, which Sanders won with 55.7% of the state convention delegates choosing him; however, Clinton had a stronger showing than expected, given her demographic disadvantage and that she did not campaign personally in the state. Each candidate was estimated to have earned 7 of Wyoming's 14 pledged delegates.


Late April and May

On April 19, Clinton won
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by 16 points. While Sanders performed well in Upstate New York and with younger voters, Clinton performed well among all other age groups and non-whites, and she won a majority in all boroughs of New York City. Five
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states held primaries a week later on April 26. The day was dubbed the "Super Tuesday III" or the "Acela Primary" after Amtrak's '' Acela Express'' train service that connects these states. Clinton won in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Connecticut while Sanders won the Rhode Island primary. On May 3, Sanders pulled off a surprise victory in the Indiana primary, winning over Clinton by a five-point margin despite trailing in all the state's polls. Clinton then won the Guam caucus on May 7 and, on May 10, she won the non-binding Nebraska primary while Sanders won in West Virginia. Clinton narrowly won Kentucky on May 17 by half a percentage point and gained one delegate, after heavily campaigning in the state. On the same day, Sanders won his second closed primary in Oregon where he gained nine delegates, a net gain of eight on the day. Clinton then went on to win the non-binding Washington primary on May 24.


June contests

June contained the final contests of the Democratic primaries, and both Sanders and Clinton invested heavily into winning the California primary. Clinton led the polls in California but some predicted a narrow race. On June 4 and 5, Clinton won two decisive victories in the Virgin Islands caucus and Puerto Rico primary. On June 6, both the Associated Press and NBC News reported that Clinton had sufficient support from pledged and unpledged delegates to become the presumptive Democratic nominee. Clinton's campaign seemed reluctant to accept the mantle of "presumptive nominee" before all the voting was concluded, while Sanders' campaign stated it would continue to run and accused the media of a "rush to judgement." Six states held their primaries on June 7. Clinton won in California, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota. Sanders won Montana and North Dakota, the latter being the only caucus contest held on that day. Clinton finally declared victory on the evening of June 7, as the results ensured that she had won a majority of the pledged delegates and the popular vote. Sanders stated he would continue to run for the Democratic Party's nomination in the final primary in the District of Columbia on June 14, which Clinton won. Both campaigns met at a downtown Washington D.C. hotel after the primary. The Sanders campaign said that they would release a video statement on June 16 to clarify the future of Sanders' campaign; the video announced that Sanders looked forward to help Clinton defeat Trump. On July 12, 2016, Sanders endorsed Clinton in
Portsmouth, New Hampshire Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 census it had a population of 21,956. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination on the Piscataqua River bordering the state of Maine, Portsmou ...
.


July 2016: National Convention and email leaks


Email leaks

On July 22, 2016, WikiLeaks released online tens of thousands of messages leaked from the e-mail accounts of seven key DNC staff. Some e-mails showed two DNC staffers discussing the possibility that Sanders' possible atheism might harm him in a general election with religious voters. Others showed a few staffers had expressed personal preferences that Clinton should become the nominee, suggesting that the party's leadership had worked to undermine Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign. Then-DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz called the accusations lies. The furor raised over this matter escalated to Wasserman Schultz's resignation ahead of the convention, and that of Marshals, Dacey, and Communications Director Luis Miranda afterwards. Following Wasserman Schultz's resignation, then-DNC Vice Chair
Donna Brazile Donna Lease Brazile (; born December 15, 1959) is an American political strategist, campaign manager and political analyst who served twice as acting Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). She is currently an ABC News contributor, ...
took over as interim DNC chairwoman for the convention and remained so until February 2017. In November 2017, Brazile said in her book and related interviews that the Clinton campaign and the DNC had colluded 'unethically' by giving the Clinton campaign control over the DNC's personnel and press releases before the primary in return for funding to eliminate the DNC's remaining debt from 2012 campaign, in addition to using the DNC and state committees to funnel campaign-limitation-exceeding donations to her campaign. Internal memos later surfaced, claiming that these measures were not meant to affect the nominating process despite their timing. At the end of June 2016, it was claimed that "more money rom the Hillary Victory Fundwill be moved to the state parties in the coming months." Brazile later clarified that she claimed the process was 'unethical', but 'not a criminal act'. DNC officials including chairman
Tom Perez Thomas Edward Perez (born October 7, 1961) is an American politician and attorney who served as the Chair of the Democratic National Committee from February 2017 until January 2021. Perez was previously Assistant Attorney General for Civil Right ...
pointed out that the same joint-fundraising agreement had been offered to Sanders and applied only to the general election; however, the Clinton campaign also had a second agreement that granted it additional, unusual oversight over hiring and policy, even though the text of the agreement insisted on the DNC's impartiality and focus on the general election. Brazile later denied that the primary was rigged, because "no votes were overturned," but described herself as "very upset" about a DNC–Clinton fundraising agreement. '' The Washington Post'' characterized Brazile's eventual argument as: "Clinton exerted too much power but did win the nomination fairly."


=Russian involvement

= After the general election, the U.S. intelligence community and the Special Counsel investigation assessed that the leaks were part of a larger interference campaign by the Russian government to cause political instability in the United States and to damage the Hillary Clinton campaign by bolstering the candidacies of Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and Jill Stein. The Russian government is alleged to have promoted Sanders beginning in 2015 as a way to weaken or defeat Clinton, who Russian President Vladimir Putin opposed. The influence campaign by the Internet Research Agency targeted Sanders voters through social media and encouraged them to vote for a third party candidate or abstain from voting. Sanders denounced these efforts and urged his supporters to support Clinton in the general election. When news of the DNC leak first surfaced in June 2016, the Russian government denied allegations of hacking. WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks came to international attention in 2010 when it published a series of leaks provided by U.S. Army inte ...
also stated that the Russian government was not source of the leak. In July 2018, the special counsel indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking and leaking the emails.


National Convention

The
2016 Democratic National Convention The 2016 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention, held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 25 to 28, 2016. The convention gathered delegates of the Democratic Party, the majo ...
was held from July 25–28 at the
Wells Fargo Center Wells Fargo Center may refer to: *Wells Fargo Center (Los Angeles), California *Wells Fargo Center (Sacramento), California * Wells Fargo Center (San Francisco), California * Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, Santa Rosa, California * Wells Fargo Cen ...
in Philadelphia, with some events at the
Pennsylvania Convention Center The Pennsylvania Convention Center is a multi-use public facility in the Market East, Philadelphia, Market East section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, designed to accommodate conventions, exhibitions, conferences and other events. The "L"-shaped ...
. The delegates selected the Democratic presidential and vice-presidential nominees and wrote the
party platform A political party platform (US English), party program, or party manifesto (preferential term in British & often Commonwealth English) is a formal set of principle goals which are supported by a political party or individual candidate, in order ...
. A simple majority of 2,383 delegates was needed to win the presidential nomination. (official source tracking active campaigns + adding delegates won on April 26, pending source update) While most of the delegates were bound on the first ballot according to the results of the primaries, a progressively larger number of pledged delegates would have become unbound if the nomination required more than one ballot. Clinton was nominated on the first ballot by acclamation, although all states were allowed to announce how they would have voted under a typical roll call vote. On July 12, 2016, the Vermont delegates had supported Clinton in Sanders' request; asking for party unity, he dropped out on July 26, 2016, and announced he would return to the Senate as an independent.


Graphical summary of polling


Campaign finance

This is an overview of the money used in the campaign as it is reported to Federal Election Commission (FEC) and released on April 27, 2016. Outside groups are independent expenditure only committees—also called PACs and SuperPACs. Several such groups normally support each candidate, but the numbers in the table are a total of all of them. This means that a group of committees can be shown as technically insolvent (shown in red) even though it is not the case of all of them. The Campaign Committee's debt is shown in red if the campaign is technically insolvent. The source of all the numbers is OpenSecrets. Some spending totals are not available, due to withdrawals before the FEC deadline.


Process

The Democratic Party presidential primaries and caucuses are indirect elections in which voters elect delegates to the
2016 Democratic National Convention The 2016 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention, held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 25 to 28, 2016. The convention gathered delegates of the Democratic Party, the majo ...
; these delegates in turn directly elect the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. In some states, the party may disregard voters' selection of delegates or selected delegates may vote for any candidate at the state or national convention (''non-binding'' primary or caucus). In other states, state laws and party rules require the party to select delegates according to votes, and delegates must vote for a particular candidate (''binding'' primary or caucus). There are 4,051 pledged delegates and 714
superdelegate In American politics, a superdelegate is an unpledged delegate to the Democratic National Convention who is seated automatically and chooses for themselves for whom they vote. These Democratic Party superdelegates (who make up slightly under 15 ...
s in the 2016 cycle. Under the party's delegate selection rules, the number of pledged delegates allocated to each of the 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. is determined using a formula based on three main factors: # The proportion of votes each state gave to the Democratic candidate in the last three presidential elections (2004, 2008, and 2012) # The number of electoral votes each state has in the United States Electoral College. # The stage of the primary season when they held their contest. States and territories that held their contests later are given bonus seats. A candidate must win 2,383 delegates at the national convention, in order to win the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. For the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the
U.S. Virgin Islands The United States Virgin Islands,. Also called the ''American Virgin Islands'' and the ''U.S. Virgin Islands''. officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and an unincorporated and organized territory ...
and for Democrats Abroad, fixed numbers of pledged delegates are allocated. All states and territories then must have used a proportional representation system, where their pledged delegates were awarded proportionally to the election results. A candidate must receive at least 15% of the popular vote to win pledged delegates in a state. The current 714 unpledged superdelegates (or "soft" delegates) included members of the United States House of Representatives and
Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
, state and territorial governors, members of the Democratic National Committee, and other party leaders. Because of possible deaths, resignations, or the results of intervening or special elections, the final number of these superdelegates may be reduced before the convention. The Democratic National Committee also imposed rules for states that wished to hold early contests in 2016. No state was permitted to hold a primary or caucus in January and only Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada were entitled to February contests. Any state that violated these rules were penalized half its pledged delegates and all its superdelegates to the 2016 convention.


Schedule and results

The following are the results of candidates that won at least one state. These candidates were on the ballots for every state, territory and federal district contest. The results of caucuses did not always have attached preference polls and attendance was extremely limited. The unpledged delegate count did not always reflect the latest declared preferences.


Superdelegate endorsements

Superdelegates are elected officials and members of the
Democratic National Committee The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The committee coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the country for local, state, and national office, as well a ...
who vote at the
Democratic National Convention The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 ...
for their preferred candidate. Also known as ''unpledged delegates,'' they comprise 15% of the convention (712 votes out of 4,763) and they may change their preference at any time. The table below reflects current public endorsements of candidates by superdelegates, as detailed and sourced in the full list above. Because commonly referenced estimates of superdelegate support, including those by CNN and the AP, do not identify individual delegates as supporting a given candidate, their published tallies may differ from the totals computed here.


Close states

Source: States where the margin of victory was under 1%: #Missouri, 0.25% #Iowa, 0.25% #Kentucky, 0.42% States where the margin of victory was under 5%: #Massachusetts, 1.40% #Michigan, 1.42% #Illinois, 1.95% #South Dakota, 2.06% #New Mexico, 3.06% #Indiana, 4.92% States where the margin of victory was under 10%: #Nevada, 5.28% #Connecticut, 5.38% #California, 6.14% #Montana, 7.40% States where the margin of victory was under 20%: #Oklahoma, 10.36% #Rhode Island, 11.63% #Pennsylvania, 12.08% #Ohio, 12.99% #Wisconsin, 13.54% #Wyoming, 13.64% #North Carolina, 13.64% #Oregon, 14.18% #Nebraska, 14.28% #Arizona, 14.90% #West Virginia, 15.57% #New York, 16.06% #Colorado, 18.68%


Maps

File:U.S. States by Vote Distribution, 2016 (Democratic Party).svg, Breakdown of the results in vote distribution, by state File:Democratic Party presidential primaries results by county, 2016.svg, Results of popular vote, by county File:Democratic Party presidential primaries results, 2016 by margin of victory.svg, Results in popular vote margin, by state File:Democratic Party presidential primary results by county by popular vote margin 2.svg, Results in popular vote margin, by county File:Delegation Vote, 2016 (Democratic Party, only pledged delegates).svg, Breakdown of the results in pledged delegates, by state File:Delegation Vote ,2016 (Democratic Party, total delegates).svg, Breakdown of the results in total delegate count, by state File:Democratic Party presidential primaries pledged delegates results, 2016.svg, Results in pledged delegates, by state


See also

Related Democratic Party articles * Results of the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries *
Nationwide opinion polling for the Democratic Party 2016 presidential primaries This is a list of nationwide public opinion polls that have been conducted relating to the Democratic primaries for the 2016 United States presidential election The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presid ...
* Statewide opinion polling for the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries *
2016 Democratic Party presidential candidates This article contains lists of candidates associated with the Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2016, 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries for the 2016 United States presidential election. Major candidates Individuals included ...
*
2016 Democratic Party presidential debates and forums Debates occurred among candidates in the campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination for the president of the United States in the 2016 presidential election. Several forums, in which candidates do not respond directly to each other, were la ...
*
List of Democratic Party presidential primaries This is a list of Democratic Party presidential primaries. 1912 This was the first time that candidates were chosen through primaries. New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson ran to become the nominee, and faced the opposition of Speaker of the Unit ...
Presidential primaries *
2016 Constitution Party presidential primaries The 2016 Constitution Party presidential primaries were 2 electoral contests, held in the states of Idaho and Missouri, by the Constitution Party (United States), Constitution Party during the 2016 United States Presidential Election, 2016 electi ...
*
2016 Green Party presidential primaries The 2016 Green Party presidential primaries were a series of primaries, caucuses and state conventions in which voters elected delegates to represent a candidate for the Green Party's nominee for President of the United States at the 2016 Gree ...
*
2016 Libertarian Party presidential primaries The 2016 Libertarian Party presidential primaries and caucuses allowed electors to indicate non-binding preferences for the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate. These differed from the Republican or Democratic presidential primarie ...
*
2016 Republican Party presidential primaries Presidential primaries and caucuses of the Republican Party took place within all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories between February 1 and June 7, 2016. These elections selected the 2,472 delegates that were se ...
National conventions *
2016 Constitution Party National Convention The Constitution Party National Convention is held by the Constitution Party (United States), United States Constitution Party every two to four years. , there have been eight. National conventions 1992 convention *The first national convention o ...
*
2016 Democratic National Convention The 2016 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention, held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 25 to 28, 2016. The convention gathered delegates of the Democratic Party, the majo ...
*
2016 Green National Convention The 2016 Green National Convention, in which delegates of the Green Party of the United States chose the party's nominees for president and vice president in the national election, was held August 4–7, 2016 in Houston, Texas. In August 2015, Ho ...
*
2016 Libertarian National Convention The 2016 Libertarian National Convention was the gathering at which delegates of the Libertarian Party chose the party's nominees for president and vice president in the 2016 national election. The party selected Gary Johnson, a former Governor o ...
*
2016 Republican National Convention The 2016 Republican National Convention, in which delegates of the United States Republican Party chose the party's nominees for president and vice president in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, was held July 18–21, 2016, at Quicken Lo ...


Notes


References


External links


Democratic Convention Watch

Green papers for 2016 primaries, caucuses, and conventions


* ttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/3/4/1496004/-Updated-Snapshot-Hillary-Bernie One-page summary on Daily Kos of candidate differences only (many links to sources) {{DEFAULTSORT:Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2016 2016 in women's history