2020 Pennsylvania Democratic presidential primary
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210 Democratic National Convention delegates (186 pledged with 125 district-level and 61 statewide; 24 unpledged) The number of pledged delegates won is determined by the popular vote | |||||||||||||||||||
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 Election results by county
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| Elections in Pennsylvania |
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 Government |
The 2020 Pennsylvania Democratic presidential primary took place on June 2, 2020, after being postponed due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. It would originally have taken place on April 28, 2020, as one of several northeastern states in the "Acela primary" voting on the same date in the Democratic Party presidential primaries for the 2020 presidential election.
The Pennsylvania primary was a closed primary, with the state awarding 210 delegates, of whom 186 were pledged delegates allocated on the basis of the primary results. Joe Biden, who was born and raised in Pennsylvania, won the primary with 79% of the vote. Bernie Sanders, who had suspended his campaign two months earlier, received 18% and a substantial amount of delegates.
Procedure
Pennsylvania had planned to join several northeastern states, which are connected by the Acela train system, in holding primaries on the same date of April 28, 2020.[1] The other states that were to vote that day were Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New York, and Rhode Island. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Pennsylvania joined Maryland and Rhode Island, as well as Indiana, in moving its primary to June 2.[2]
Voting took place throughout the state from 7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. In the closed primary, candidates had to meet a threshold of 15% at the congressional district or statewide level in order to be considered viable. The 186 pledged delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention were allocated proportionally on the basis of the results of the primary. Of these, between 4 and 14 were allocated to each of the state's 18 congressional districts and another 20 were allocated to party leaders and elected officials (PLEO delegates), in addition to 41 at-large pledged delegates.[3] Originally planned with 153 delegates, the final number included a 25% bonus of 33 additional delegates in the 166 district and at-large delegates by the Democratic National Committee, 10% for the original April date, which belonged to Stage II on the primary timetable, and an additional 15% for the regional "Acela" cluster alongside originally five other states that would have voted on the same day.[4][5]
If fewer delegate candidates had been listed by a presidential candidate than had to be allocated based on the results of the primary, then the additional delegates were to be named at the subsequent state convention (originally planned for June 13 and postponed to July 18), which also voted on the 41 pledged at-large and 20 PLEO delegates. The 186 pledged delegates Pennsylvania sent to the national convention were joined by 24 unpledged PLEO delegates (12 members of the Democratic National Committee; 10 members of Congress, including one Senator and 9 U.S. Representatives; the governor Tom Wolf; and former DNC Chair Ed Rendell).[3]
| Pledged national convention delegates | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Del. | Type | Del. |
| CD1 | 8 | CD10 | 7 |
| CD2 | 8 | CD11 | 5 |
| CD3 | 14 | CD12 | 4 |
| CD4 | 10 | CD13 | 4 |
| CD5 | 9 | CD14 | 5 |
| CD6 | 8 | CD15 | 4 |
| CD7 | 7 | CD16 | 5 |
| CD8 | 6 | CD17 | 8 |
| CD9 | 4 | CD18 | 9 |
| PLEO | 20 | At-large | 41 |
| Total pledged delegates | 186 | ||
Candidates
The following candidates appeared on the ballot in Pennsylvania:[6]
- Joe Biden
- Tulsi Gabbard (withdrawn)
- Bernie Sanders (withdrawn)
There was also an option for write-in votes, but their general amount was not tallied.[7]
Polling
| Polling Aggregation | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source of poll aggregation | Date updated |
Dates polled |
Joe Biden |
Bernie Sanders |
Other/ Undecided[a] | ||||||
| 270 to Win | Mar 18, 2020 | Feb 11–Mar 8, 2020 | 39.5% | 28.0% | 32.5% | ||||||
| RealClear Politics | Feb 23, 2020 | Jan 20–Feb 20, 2020 | 39.5% | 28.0% | 32.5% | ||||||
| FiveThirtyEight | Mar 8, 2020 | until Feb 20, 2020[b] | 54.4% | 29.3% | 16.3% | ||||||
| Average | 44.5% | 28.4% | 27.1% | ||||||||
| Poll source | Date(s) administered |
Sample size[c] |
Margin of error |
Joe Biden |
Michael Bloomberg |
Cory Booker |
Pete Buttigieg |
Kamala Harris |
Beto O'Rourke |
Bernie Sanders |
Elizabeth Warren |
Other | Undecided |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sanders suspends his campaign | |||||||||||||
| YouGov/Yahoo News | Mar 6–8, 2020 | –(RV)[d] | ± 5.1% | 59% | – | – | – | – | – | 31% | – | – | – |
| Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Bloomberg and Warren withdraw from the race | |||||||||||||
| YouGov/University of Wisconsin-Madison | Feb 11–20, 2020 | 537 (LV) | – | 20% | 19% | – | 12% | – | – | 25% | 9% | 5%[e] | 10%[f] |
| New Hampshire primary; Yang withdraws from the race after close of polls | |||||||||||||
| Franklin & Marshall College | Jan 20–26, 2020 | 292 (RV) | ± 9.0% | 22% | 7% | – | 6% | – | – | 15% | 14% | 18%[g] | 19% |
| Baldwin Wallace University/Oakland University/Ohio Northern University |
Jan 8–20, 2020 | 502 (RV) | – | 31.3% | 9.1% | – | 6.5% | – | – | 20.5% | 11.5% | 8.8%[h] | 11% |
| Harris and Booker withdraw from the race | |||||||||||||
| Bloomberg announces his candidacy | |||||||||||||
| O'Rourke withdraws from the race | |||||||||||||
| Franklin & Marshall College | Oct 21–27, 2019 | 226 (RV) | ± 8.9% | 30% | – | 1% | 8% | 1% | <1% | 12% | 18% | 15%[i] | 16% |
| Siena Research/New York Times | Oct 13–26, 2019 | 304 | – | 28% | – | 0% | 4% | 1% | 0% | 14% | 16% | 3%[j] | 30% |
| Kaiser Family Foundation | Sep 23–Oct 15, 2019 | 246 (LV) | – | 27% | – | 1% | 3% | 4% | No voters | 14% | 18% | 5%[k] | 29% |
| Susquehanna Polling and Research Inc. Archived 2019-10-31 at the Wayback Machine | Sep 30–Oct 6, 2019 | 307 (RV) | ± 5.6% | 17% | – | 0% | 8% | 1% | 0% | 6% | 9% | 7%[l] | 52% |
| Franklin & Marshall College | Jul 29–Aug 4, 2019 | 295 | ± 8.7% | 28% | – | 2% | 6% | 8% | 1% | 12% | 21% | 3%[m] | 19% |
| Zogby Analytics | May 23–29, 2019 | 246 | ± 6.3% | 46% | – | 2% | 9% | 3% | 2% | 15% | 8% | 2%[n] | – |
| Quinnipiac University | May 9–14, 2019 | 431 | ± 6.2% | 39% | – | 5% | 6% | 8% | 2% | 13% | 8% | 3%[o] | 12% |
| Biden announces his candidacy | |||||||||||||
| Buttigieg announces his candidacy | |||||||||||||
| Muhlenberg College | Apr 3–10, 2019 | 405 | ± 5.5% | 28% | – | 3% | 4% | 8% | 3% | 16% | 8% | 9%[p] | 20% |
| Emerson College | Mar 26–28, 2019 | 359 | ± 5.1% | 39% | – | 4% | 6% | 5% | 5% | 20% | 11% | 10%[q] | – |
Results
| Candidate | Votes | % | Delegates[9] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joe Biden | 1,264,624 | 79.26 | 151 |
| Bernie Sanders (withdrawn) | 287,834 | 18.04 | 35 |
| Tulsi Gabbard (withdrawn) | 43,050 | 2.70 | |
| Total | 1,595,508 | 100% | 186 |
See also
- 2020 Pennsylvania elections
- 2020 Pennsylvania Republican presidential primary
- Elections in Pennsylvania
Notes
- Additional candidates
- ^ Calculated by taking the difference of 100% and all other candidates combined
- ^ FiveThirtyEight aggregates polls with a trendline regression of polls rather than a strict average of recent polls.
- ^ Key:
A – all adults
RV – registered voters
LV – likely voters
V – unclear - ^ Part of a 1,750 registered voter poll of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin
- ^ Klobuchar with 5%; "Others" not reported separately
- ^ contains also "others"
- ^ Yang and Klobuchar with 5%; "Other" with 2%; "None" with 6%
- ^ Klobuchar and Yang with 2.5%; Bennet with 1.2%; Steyer with 1%; Gabbard with 0.9%; Delaney with 0.4%; Patrick with 0.3%
- ^ Bennet, Gabbard and Klobuchar with 2%; Yang with 1%; Bullock with <1%; none with 8%; other with 0%
- ^ Yang with 2%; Klobuchar with 1%; others with 0%
- ^ Yang with 2%; Klobuchar and Steyer with 1%; Bennet, Bullock, Delaney, Gabbard, Messam, O'Rourke, Ryan, Sestak and Williamson with no voters; refused with 1%
- ^ Bennet with 2%; Klobuchar with 1%; Bullock, Castro, Delaney, Gabbard, Messam, Ryan, Sestak, Steyer, Williamson and Yang with 0%; someone else/none with 3%; refused to answer with 1%
- ^ Bullock, Gabbard, and "Other" with 1%
- ^ Castro, Gillibrand, and Yang with 1%; Delaney, Gabbard, Hickenlooper, Inslee, and Klobuchar with 0%
- ^ Klobuchar with 1%; Bennet, Castro, Delaney, Gabbard, Gillibrand, Hickenlooper, Inslee, Messam, Moulton, Ryan, Swalwell, Williamson, and Yang with <1%; others with 2%
- ^ Klobuchar with 3%; others with 6%
- ^ Gabbard with 3%; Gillibrand with 2%; Castro and Yang with 1%; Hickenlooper, Inslee, and Klobuchar with 0%; others with 4%
References
- ^ Thompson, Steve; Nirappil, Fenit (February 6, 2019). "D.C. is slated to vote last in 2020 Democratic primaries. That might change". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
- ^ Levy, Marc; Scolforo, Mark (March 25, 2020). "Pennsylvania lawmakers vote to delay primary election". AP NEWS. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
- ^ a b "Pennsylvania Democratic Delegation 2020". The Green Papers. May 3, 2019. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
- ^ "Democratic Timing Penalties and Bonuses". The Green Papers. November 24, 2021. Retrieved April 17, 2022.
- ^ "The Math Behind the Democratic Delegate Allocation - 2020". The Green Papers. November 24, 2021. Retrieved April 17, 2022.
- ^ "Sample Ballot - General Primary and Special Election June 2, 2020" (PDF). philadelphiavotes.com. April 15, 2020.
- ^ "Sample Ballot - General Primary and Special Election June 2, 2020" (PDF). philadelphiavotes.com. April 15, 2020.
- ^ "2020 Presidential Primary Official Returns". Pennsylvania Department of State. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
- ^ "2020 Primary Elections: Pennsylvania results". NBC. 17 July 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2020.