2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries

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February 3 to June 23, 2020

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1,990 of 3,979 pledged delegate votes needed to win the presidential nomination at the convention's first ballot.
(2,376 of all 4,750 delegate votes needed to win any subsequent ballots at a contested convention.)


Candidate	Joe Biden	Bernie Sanders	Elizabeth Warren
Home state	Delaware	Vermont	Massachusetts
Delegate count	2,671	1,073	63
Contests won	46	9	0
Popular vote	18,015,274	9,443,990	2,780,873
Percentage	51.05%	26.76%	7.88%


Candidate	Michael Bloomberg	Pete Buttigieg	Amy Klobuchar
Home state	New York	Indiana	Minnesota
Delegate count	59	21	7
Contests won	1	1	0
Popular vote	2,475,130	912,214	524,400
Percentage	7.01%	2.58%	1.49%


Candidate	Tulsi Gabbard
Home state	Hawaii
Delegate count	2
Contests won	0
Popular vote	263,952
Percentage	0.75%

First place by popular vote

First place by national pledged delegates

Bernie Sanders Joe Biden Pete Buttigieg Michael Bloomberg

Previous Democratic nominee

Hillary Clinton

Democratic nominee

Joe Biden

The 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries and caucuses were special elections. The Democratic Party held them to choose their candidate for president of the United States. These elections happened across the country.

People voted to pick "delegates." These delegates then went to the Democratic National Convention. At the convention, they officially chose the person who would run for president.

The elections took place from February to June 2020. They happened in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and some U.S. territories. On June 5, 2020, Joe Biden won enough delegates to become the official nominee.

About the 2020 Democratic Primaries
How Delegates Work
Who Ran for President?
- The Nominee
- Candidates Who Withdrew
Primary and Caucus Calendar
Democratic National Convention
Maps
Images for kids
See also

About the 2020 Democratic Primaries

The 2020 Democratic presidential race had many candidates. More than two dozen people wanted to become president. This was one of the largest groups of candidates in a long time.

Many different people ran for president. This included at least six women. It was a very diverse group of candidates.

How Delegates Work

In these elections, candidates try to win "delegates." Delegates are like representatives. They promise to vote for a certain candidate at the national convention. A candidate needs a certain number of delegates to win the nomination.

There are two types of delegates:

Pledged delegates: These delegates are chosen based on how people vote in the primaries and caucuses. They are "pledged" to support a specific candidate.
Superdelegates: These are party leaders and elected officials. They are not tied to primary results.

New rules were put in place for superdelegates in 2020. They could not vote on the first ballot at the convention if one candidate had a clear majority of pledged delegates. This made sure that the voters' choices were most important.

Who Ran for President?

Many people ran for the Democratic nomination in 2020. Here are the main candidates:

The Nominee

The Democratic Party chose Joe Biden as their candidate for president. He later picked Kamala Harris to be his running mate for vice president.

Joe Biden	Kamala Harris
2020 Democratic Party ticket
for President	for Vice President

Vice President of the United States (2009–2017) U.S. senator from Delaware (1973–2009)
Campaign

Candidates Who Withdrew

Many candidates started campaigns but later decided to stop. Most of them then supported Joe Biden. Here are some of the well-known candidates who withdrew:

Bernie Sanders	Tulsi Gabbard	Elizabeth Warren	Michael Bloomberg	Amy Klobuchar	Pete Buttigieg	Tom Steyer
Candidates in this section are sorted by date of withdrawal from the primaries

U.S. senator from Vermont (2007–present)	U.S. representative from HI-02 (2013–present)	U.S. senator from Massachusetts (2013–present)	Mayor of New York City, New York (2002–2013)	U.S. senator from Minnesota (2007–present)	Mayor of South Bend, Indiana (2012–2020)	Hedge fund manager

Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign
W: April 8, 2020 (endorsed Biden) 8,466,161 votes 1,007 delegates	W: March 19, 2020 (endorsed Biden) 191,459 votes 2 delegates	W: March 5, 2020 (endorsed Biden) 2,607,928 votes 58 delegates	W: March 4, 2020 (endorsed Biden) 2,422,368 votes 43 delegates	W: March 2, 2020 (endorsed Biden) 494,695 votes 7 delegates	W: March 1, 2020 (endorsed Biden) 855,014 votes 21 delegates	W: February 29, 2020 (endorsed Biden) 248,875 votes

Deval Patrick	Michael Bennet	Andrew Yang	John Delaney	Cory Booker	Marianne Williamson	Julián Castro

Governor of Massachusetts (2007–2015)	U.S. senator from Colorado (2009–present)	Entrepreneur	U.S. representative from MD-06 (2013–2019)	U.S. senator from New Jersey (2013–present)	Author	Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (2014–2017)

Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign
W: February 12, 2020 (endorsed Biden) 19,630 votes	W: February 11, 2020 42,322 votes	W: February 11, 2020 (endorsed Biden) 108,313 votes	W: January 31, 2020 (endorsed Biden) 15,985 votes	W: January 13, 2020 (endorsed Biden) 28,913 votes	W: January 10, 2020 (endorsed Sanders) 21,437 votes	W: January 2, 2020 (endorsed Warren, then Biden) 36,277 votes

Kamala Harris	Steve Bullock	Joe Sestak	Wayne Messam	Beto O'Rourke	Tim Ryan	Bill de Blasio

U.S. senator from California (2017–present)	Governor of Montana (2013–present)	U.S. representative from PA-07 (2007–2011)	Mayor of Miramar, Florida (2015–present)	U.S. representative from TX-16 (2013–2019)	U.S. representative from OH-13 (2013–present)	Mayor of New York City, New York (2014–present)
		N/A
Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign
W: December 2, 2019 844 votes	W: December 3, 2019 (endorsed Biden) 549 votes	W: December 1, 2019 (endorsed Klobuchar) 5,251 votes	W: November 19, 2019 0 votes	W: November 1, 2019 (endorsed Biden) 1 vote	W: October 24, 2019 (endorsed Biden) 0 votes	W: September 20, 2019 (endorsed Sanders) 0 votes

Kirsten Gillibrand	Seth Moulton	Jay Inslee	John Hickenlooper	Mike Gravel	Eric Swalwell	Richard Ojeda

U.S. senator from New York (2009–present)	U.S. representative from MA-06 (2015–present)	Governor of Washington (2013–present)	Governor of Colorado (2011–2019)	U.S. senator from Alaska (1969–1981)	U.S. representative from CA-15 (2013–present)	West Virginia state senator from WV-SD07 (2016–2019)
						N/A
Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign
W: August 28, 2019 (endorsed Biden) 0 votes	W: August 23, 2019 (endorsed Biden) 0 votes	W: August 21, 2019 1 vote	W: August 15, 2019 (endorsed Bennet) 1 vote	W: August 6, 2019 (endorsed Gabbard and Sanders) 0 votes	W: July 8, 2019 0 votes	W: January 25, 2019 0 votes

Primary and Caucus Calendar

The primaries and caucuses took place across the United States. They started in February and continued through June.

February: Early states like Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina held their votes first.
March 3 (Super Tuesday): This was a very important day. Many states held their primaries at once. This included California and Texas.
Later Months: Other states held their primaries in March, April, May, and June.

Democratic primary and caucus calendar by currently scheduled date
      February
      March 3 (Super Tuesday)
      March 10
      March 14–17
      March 24–29
      April 4–7
      April 28
      May
      June
      No scheduled 2020 date

Date	Total Pledged Delegates	Primaries/Caucuses
February 3	41	Iowa caucuses
February 11	24	New Hampshire primary
February 22	36	Nevada caucuses
February 29	54	South Carolina primary
March 3 (Super Tuesday)	1,345	Alabama primary American Samoa caucuses Arkansas primary California primary Colorado primary voting period ends Maine primary Massachusetts primary Minnesota primary North Carolina primary Oklahoma primary Tennessee primary Texas primary Utah primary Vermont primary Virginia primary
March 10	365	Democrats Abroad party-run primary voting period ends Idaho primary Michigan primary Mississippi primary Missouri primary North Dakota firehouse caucuses (party-run primary) Washington primary voting period ends
March 14	6	Northern Mariana Islands caucuses
March 17	577	Arizona primary Florida primary Illinois primary Ohio primary
March 24	105	Georgia primary
March 29	51	Puerto Rico primary
April 4	107	Alaska party-run primary Hawaii party-run primary Louisiana primary Wyoming caucuses
April 7	84	Wisconsin primary
April 28	662	Connecticut primary Delaware primary Maryland primary New York primary Pennsylvania primary Rhode Island primary
May 2	46	Guam caucuses Kansas party-run primary
May 5	82	Indiana primary
May 12	57	Nebraska primary West Virginia primary
May 19	115	Kentucky primary Oregon primary
June 2	215	District of Columbia primary Montana primary New Jersey primary New Mexico primary South Dakota primary
June 6	7	United States Virgin Islands caucuses

Democratic National Convention

The 2020 Democratic National Convention is where the delegates officially nominated the presidential candidate. It was planned for July 2020 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the convention was changed. It happened in August 2020 instead. Most speakers did not go to Milwaukee. They joined the convention online from other places.