The 2020 Texas Democratic presidential primary took place on March 3, 2020, as one of 15 contests scheduled on Super Tuesday in the Democratic Party primaries for the 2020 presidential election, following the South Carolina primary the weekend before. The Texas primary was an open primary, with the state awarding the second-largest amount of national convention delegates on Super Tuesday and third-largest amount overall: 260 delegates, of which 228 were pledged delegates allocated on the basis of the primary. Prior to election day, senator

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 ...

had been ahead in Texas polling, even in spite of Joe Biden's powerful win in the South Carolina primary, and had hopes of establishing a commanding lead thanks to the high favorability Sanders had with the Latino electorate. With the support of several last-minute endorsements like those of

Pete Buttigieg Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg ( ; ; Sometimes pronounced or , but not by Buttigieg himself. born January 19, 1982) is an American politician and former military officer who is currently serving as the United States secretary of transp ...

Amy Klobuchar Amy Jean Klobuchar ( ; born May 25, 1960) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Minnesota, a seat she has held since 2007. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Minne ...

and Beto O'Rourke, in another "surprise win", former vice president Joe Biden topped the final results with 34.6% of the vote and 113 delegates, leading over Sanders (who got 99 delegates) by almost five points, and practically leveled his loss in California. Widely seen as a blow to Sanders, his failure to win Texas helped contribute to his depleting momentum and eventual loss of front-runner status after Super Tuesday. Former mayor

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ca ...

and senator Elizabeth Warren placed ahead in some counties and won several district delegates, but overall they missed the 15% threshold for statewide delegates.

Procedure

Texas was one of 14 states and one territory holding primaries on March 3, 2020, also known as " Super Tuesday". Voting took place throughout the state from 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. local time. In the primary, candidates had to meet a threshold of 15 percent at the state senatorial district or statewide level in order to be considered viable (Texas was the only state to chose districts from state senate elections over congressional districts for delegate distribution). The 228 pledged delegates to the

2020 Democratic National Convention The 2020 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention that was held from August 17 to 20, 2020, at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and virtually across the United States. At the convention, delegates of ...

were allocated proportionally on the basis of the results of the primary. Of these, between 3 and 10 were allocated to each of the state's 31 state senatorial districts and another 30 allocated to party leaders and elected officials (PLEO delegates), in addition to 49 at-large delegates. The Super Tuesday primary as part of Stage I on the primary timetable received no bonus delegates, in order to disperse the primaries between more different date clusters and keep too many states from hoarding on the first shared date or on a March date in general. After precinct, county, and senatorial district conventions on March 21, 2020 during which delegates to the state convention were nominated, the state convention was subsequently held between June 18 and June 20, 2020 to vote on the 49 at-large and 30 pledged PLEO delegates for the Democratic National Convention. The delegation also included 32 unpledged PLEO delegates: 19 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 ...

and 13 representatives from Congress.

Candidates

Filing for the primary began in early November 2019. The following candidates filed and were on the ballot in Texas: Running * Joe Biden *

* Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente III * Tulsi Gabbard *

* Elizabeth Warren * Robby Wells Withdrawn *

Michael Bennet Michael Farrand Bennet (born November 28, 1964) is an American attorney, businessman, and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Colorado, a seat he has held since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, he was appointed t ...

* Cory Booker *

* Julian Castro * John Delaney *

Deval Patrick Deval Laurdine Patrick (born July 31, 1956) is an American politician, civil rights lawyer, author, and businessman who served as the 71st governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015. He was first elected in 2006, succeeding Mitt Romney, who ...

* Tom Steyer * Marianne Williamson * Andrew Yang Kamala Harris had been accepted onto the ballot, but had withdrawn early so that she was not put on it.

Polling

Results

Results by county

† - candidates who withdrew prior to early voting, but appeared on the ballot
‡ - candidates who withdrew after early voting had started The winner in each county is denoted by bold.

Analysis

Exit polls indicated Sanders winning an overwhelming share of the Latino vote, exemplifying his strong efforts at outreach to Texas's Latino community carrying with that almost every counties in the Mexican–American border as well as cities like El Paso, San Antonio and

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

. He also won the voters under 50 of all races. Biden's strength was overwhelmingly among older people, especially whites and African-Americans in cities such as Dallas and Houston.

Notes

;Additional candidates ;General ;Withdrawn candidates votes by county ;Withdrawn candidates percentages by county

References

External links

The Green Papers delegate allocation summaryTexas Democratic Party delegate selection plan summaryFiveThirtyEight Texas primary poll tracker
{{2020 Democratic primaries Texas Democratic Democratic primary

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...