2020 Pennsylvania Democratic presidential primary
The 2020 Pennsylvania Democratic presidential primary was originally scheduled to take 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. Concerns about the coronavirus pandemic postponed it to June 2.[1]
 | |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
210 Democratic National Convention delegates (186 pledged, 24 unpledged) The number of pledged delegates won is determined by the popular vote | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||
 Election results by county
Joe Biden | |||||||||||||||||||
.jpg.webp)
| Elections in Pennsylvania |
|---|
 |
The Pennsylvania primary is a closed primary, with the state awarding 210 delegates, of whom 186 are pledged delegates allocated on the basis of the primary results. Joe Biden, who was born and raised in Pennsylvania, won the primary with 79.3% of the vote. Bernie Sanders, who had suspended his campaign two months earlier, received 18%.
Procedure
Pennsylvania was going to join several northeastern states in holding primaries on the same date of April 28, 2020.[2] The other states that were to vote that day include Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New York, and Rhode Island. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Pennsylvania joined several other states in moving its primary to June 2.[1]
Voting took place throughout the state from 7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. In the closed primary, candidates must 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 will be allocated proportionally on the basis of the results of the primary. Of the 186 pledged delegates, between 4 and 10 are allocated to each of the state's 18 congressional districts and another 20 are allocated to party leaders and elected officials (PLEO delegates), in addition to 33 at-large pledged delegates. These delegate totals do not account for pledged delegate bonuses or penalties from timing or clustering.[3]
If fewer delegate candidates are listed than allocated based on the results of the primary, then the additional delegates will be named at the subsequent state convention on June 13, which will vote on the 33 pledged at-large and 20 PLEO delegates to send to the Democratic National Convention. The 153 pledged delegates Pennsylvania sends to the national convention will be joined by 23 unpledged PLEO delegates (12 members of the Democratic National Committee; 10 members of Congress, including one Senator and 9 U.S. Representatives; and the governor).[3]
Polling
| Polling Aggregation | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source of poll aggregation | Date updated |
Dates polled |
Joe Biden |
Bernie Sanders |
Other/ Undecided[lower-alpha 1] | ||||||
| 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[lower-alpha 2] | 54.4% | 29.3% | 16.3% | ||||||
| Average | 44.5% | 28.4% | 27.1% | ||||||||
| Poll source | Date(s) administered |
Sample size[lower-alpha 3] |
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 | |||||||||||||
| Gabbard withdraws from the race | |||||||||||||
| YouGov/Yahoo News | Mar 6–8, 2020 | –(RV)[lower-alpha 4] | ± 5.1% | 59% | – | – | – | – | – | 31% | – | – | – |
| Warren withdraws from the race | |||||||||||||
| Bloomberg withdraws from the race | |||||||||||||
| Klobuchar withdraws from the race | |||||||||||||
| Buttigieg withdraws from the race | |||||||||||||
| YouGov/University of Wisconsin-Madison | Feb 11–20, 2020 | 537 (LV) | – | 20% | 19% | – | 12% | – | – | 25% | 9% | 5%[lower-alpha 5] | 10%[lower-alpha 6] |
| 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%[lower-alpha 7] | 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%[lower-alpha 8] | 11% |
| Booker withdraws from the race | |||||||||||||
| Harris withdraws from the race | |||||||||||||
| Sestak withdraws 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%[lower-alpha 9] | 16% |
| Siena Research/New York Times | Oct 13–26, 2019 | 304 | – | 28% | – | 0% | 4% | 1% | 0% | 14% | 16% | 3%[lower-alpha 10] | 30% |
| Kaiser Family Foundation | Sep 23-Oct 15, 2019 | 246 (LV) | – | 27% | – | 1% | 3% | 4% | No voters | 14% | 18% | 5%[lower-alpha 11] | 29% |
| Susquehanna Polling and Research Inc. | Sep 30 – Oct 6, 2019 | 307 (RV) | ± 5.6% | 17% | – | 0% | 8% | 1% | 0% | 6% | 9% | 7%[lower-alpha 12] | 52% |
| Franklin & Marshall College | Jul 29 – Aug 4, 2019 | 295 | ± 8.7% | 28% | – | 2% | 6% | 8% | 1% | 12% | 21% | 3%[lower-alpha 13] | 19% |
| Zogby Analytics | May 23–29, 2019 | 246 | ± 6.3% | 46% | – | 2% | 9% | 3% | 2% | 15% | 8% | 2%[lower-alpha 14] | – |
| Quinnipiac University | May 9–14, 2019 | 431 | ± 6.2% | 39% | – | 5% | 6% | 8% | 2% | 13% | 8% | 3%[lower-alpha 15] | 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%[lower-alpha 16] | 20% |
| Emerson College | Mar 26–28, 2019 | 359 | ± 5.1% | 39% | – | 4% | 6% | 5% | 5% | 20% | 11% | 10%[lower-alpha 17] | – |
Results
| Candidate | Votes | % | Delegates[5] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joe Biden | 1,264,624 | 79.26% | 151 |
| Bernie Sanders (suspended) | 287,834 | 18.04% | 35 |
| Tulsi Gabbard (withdrawn) | 43,050 | 2.70% | 0 |
| Total | 1,595,508 | 100% | 186 |
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
- Levy, Marc; Scolforo, Mark (March 25, 2020). "Pennsylvania lawmakers vote to delay primary election". AP NEWS. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
- 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.
- "Pennsylvania Democratic Delegation 2020". The Green Papers. May 3, 2019. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
- "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.