2020 Democratic Presidential Nominee Update

While the coronavirus outbreak is in everyone’s minds and dominating the news, the question still stands as to who will face incumbent Donald Trump in the 2020 election on November 3. Two major candidates–Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden– remain from 29 initial candidates at the start of the race.

1,991 of the 3,979 delegates are needed to win the 2020 Democratic party presidential nomination. Joe Biden leads with 1,181 delegates compares to Bernie Sanders’ 885 as of Wednesday 3/18 from NPR.

Bernie Sanders gained momentum from winning the New Hampshire and Nevada primaries early in the race. Joe Biden secured a much needed win in South Carolina which analysts on both sides of the political spectrum say was a revival of his campaign from the loses in the first three states.

The two headed into Super Tuesday on March 3 with high hopes of securing the majority of the 775 delegates distributed that day, 415 coming from California. Joe Biden won the majority of delegates with upsets in states such as Minnesota, Virginia, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and a surprising number of delegates secured in California. As the night went on, Republican political strategist Karl Rove noted how Bernie Sanders could turn the tide of the delegate count when California’s results came in. Considering around 7,000 dollars was spent by Joe Biden to Bernie Sanders’ 7 million in CA, Biden secured a surprisingly disproportionate 166 delegates to Sanders’ 216 based on funding. The totals that night were 632 delegates for Biden and 546 for Sanders. What helped turn the results in favor of Biden were the decisions of Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar to drop out of the race and endorse Biden days before the primaries.

Before the next 352 delegates were distributed on March 10, Joe Biden received a wave of endorsements from people including Michael Bloomberg, Kamala Harris, Julian Castro, Corey Booker, and more. Many of these former presidential hopefuls opposed Biden in the debates and spoke openly about his mental unfitness to lead the country a president, but quickly turned their sentiments toward him around to voice their full support for his campaign before March 10. Biden won 4 out of 6 states, with his win in Michigan being the key as it is considered a swing state in the election. Republican political strategist Karl Rove calculated that Sanders would need to win 55% or more of the votes in the states to turn the nomination in his favor, but he only received an average of 36.35%. The delegate totals after that night were Biden: 898 and Sanders: 875.

Joe Biden won 281 delegates out 421 from Arizona, Florida, and Illinois on Tuesday March 17. Ohio and its 136 delegates postponed its primary until the proposed date of June 2 due to coronavirus concerns. This brings us to the totals today as previously stated in the article. The prospects look as if Joe Biden is on the road to winning the nomination after a swift revival of his campaign. The question still remains to be answered in November on whether he will be up to the task of facing Donald Trump in the election.