|
By: Javier Gomez, Sophomore The race for the 2020 presidential election is tighter than ever before, and it is only getting started. The Iowa Caucus Chaos Photo of a stadium holding an Iowa Caucus. The Democratic candidate elections for the Iowa Caucus began on February 3, 2020. There influence is monumental because the Caucus essentially represents “a neighborhood meeting of sorts-for politically active, like-minded people.” People gather in gyms, auditoriums, or other community conference-like places and begin the process of moving throughout the caucus site. NBC News describes how “supporters of former Vice President Joe Biden will gather in one corner and backers of Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts others.” This year, the Iowa caucus had some complications as they used a new app that was rushed and flawed from the beginning. Fears of inaccuracy and miscount in the ballots caused Tom Perez, Democratic National Committee Chair, to call on “state party officials to recanvass the results of Monday’s caucuses” (NBC News). This event caused a disruption in the candidates campaign and sent the Democratic into chaos. But amid the recount, no changes were made to the original count. The results were super tight between Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders. Pete Buttigeig scored 26.2% with 14 pledged delegates while Bernie Sanders scored 26.1% with 12 pledged delegates(a tight discrepancy of 0.1). Other contenders such as Elizabeth Warren scored 18.0% with 8 pledged delegates, Joe Biden scored 15.8 with 6 pledged delegates, and Amy Klobuchar with a score of 12.3% with 1 pledged delegate. The rest of the contenders scored poorly and did not receive any pledged delegates; all according to CNN Politics and The New York Times. The Reorganization of New HampshireAfter the chaos and unorganization of the Iowa Caucus, all eyes were upon the second primary state, New Hampshire. Voting took place on February 11, 2020 and the results were looking favorably toward Bernie Sanders. 24 pledged delegates were at stake at the New Hampshire Primary. With the results coming in, Bernie was the projected winner of New Hampshire. Sanders scored 26.5% and won 9 pledged delegates, Buttigeig was a close second scoring 24.3% and earning the same total of 9 pledged delegates, and Amy Blobuchar scored 19.7% and earned 6 pledged delegates. Unfortunately and as a big shocker, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden poorly came in 4th and 5th; “a stunning result for two candidates who were neck and neck for national front-runner status as recently as October — and NBC News projected Tuesday that neither of them would meet the threshold to collect any delegates.”(NBC News). Warren scored 9.2% with 0 pledged delegates and Biden scored a 9.4% with 0 pledged voters. South Carolina Changed Everything Eyes were on South Carolina on Friday, February 28th. That day, a rather important Democratic primary was held. You may ask why is South Carolina important? Well South Carolina, according to the New York Times, “It’s the first primary with a large black electorate.” It’s one of the first early voting states that has the highest concentration on African American voters. This primary, asserts NBC News, “is seen as a strong indicator of how well the candidates are performing with the key Democratic constituency.” Shortly after polls closed, Joe Biden was projected to win all of South Carolina. Biden won the state of North Carolina by 48.6% and a total of 39 delegates, with Bernie Sanders coming in second with 19.8% and a total of 15 delegates (according to CNN politics, exit polls declared that Sanders did not capture the attention of African American voters than anticipated). With this victory in the South Carolina primary, Biden closed the delegate gap between Bernie Sanders. This victory in South Carolina may catapult and set momentum to Joe Biden’s campaign and increase his chances of winning big in the upcoming Super Tuesday. With the results of the South Carolina Primary, billionaire businessman,Tom Steyer, decided and announced that he was exiting the race- stating “he couldn’t see a “path where I can win.” Next up, Super Tuesday! Super Tuesday-March 3rd-The Game Changer  Photo capturing all states that held their primaries during Super Tuesday. What is Super Tuesday, this monumental day everyone always talks about? According to The Washington Post, “Super Tuesday is the single day where most states hold primaries or caucuses.” Over 16 states hold primaries or caucuses which is inevitable to the Democratic nominees as “more than a third of all delegates (1357 delegates) for the Democratic National Convention were up for grabs on this day.” Results started coming in as soon as Wednesday morning, when Biden was caught seamlessly in the lead, right in front of Bernie Sanders, Mike Bloomberg, and Elizabeth Warren. Joe Biden won 10 states including Alabama (63.2%), Arkansas (40.4%), Maine (A tight race between Sanders of a discrepancy of 1.1 percent; 34.0%), Minnesota (38.6%), North Carolina (43.0%), Massachusetts (33.4%), Oklahoma (38.7%), Tennessee (41.7%), Texas (34.5%), and Virginia (53.3%). Although Joe Biden scored big on Super Tuesday, Bernie Sanders, another Democratic nominee, won slightly big as well with scoring over 4 states with high populous votes. Bernie Sanders won Utah (34.6%), Vermont (50.7%), Colorado (36.3%), and is currently on track to win California, the biggest decider between the 2 top opponents. Why is California so important, you might ask? Originally California’s primary elections were held in June, a date near the end of primary elections. According to The San Diego Union-Tribune “Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill in 2017 moving up the date with bipartisan support.” California has roughly 415 delegates, making it the state with the most delegates and a huge prize toward the Democratic nominees. California is also a tricky situation due to it’s “size and pricey media markets”. According to Vox ``To do well there, candidates must make sure they conduct outreach to a diverse electorate: 31% of eligible voters are Latino, 15% are Asian American, and 7% are African American.” As of now, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders is in the lead and projected to win the state. This win can catapult his chances of being elected the Democratic candidate for the 2020 general elections. Sanders is at 33.6%, roughly 8.4 points ahead of Joe Biden (25.2%). If the results of Super Tuesday weren’t enough, the dropouts are shockers. Hours before Super Tuesday was to begin, 59-year-old Minnesota senator, Amy Klobuchar, announced on March 2nd that she was suspending her campaign and renouncing from the race. She went on to endorse former Vice President Joe Biden. The dominos kept falling after a disappointing “Super Tuesday '' where the billionaire and former New York mayor announced that he was suspending his campaign and dropping out of the race. Like Senator Amy, Mike went on to endorse Biden. Finally, the last senator to leave the presidential race as of now is Elizabeth Warren. Shortly after Super Tuesday, on March 5th, Senator Elizabeth Warren announced that she was dropping out of the 2020 presidential race. This leaves former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democractic race for the presidential nominee position. Super Tuesday 2.0/March 10thMarch 10th, or commonly referred to as Super Tuesday 2.0, happened and the results are hair-rising. Joe Biden, at no surprise since his big win in Super Tuesday, made a monumental leap in his campaign and his journey toward 1,991 delegates. Out of the 5 states that were up for grabs on this day, 352 delegates, Joe Biden won four: (Michigan (52.9%), Mississippi (81,1%), Idaho (48.9%), and Missouri (60.1%). From a campaign point of view, Bernie Sanders did not “win big” and was outshined by Biden. Bernie was only able to win North Dakota with a percentage of 53.3%, a huge discrepancy from Biden (39.8%). Bernie described the night as "was not a good night for our campaign from a delegate point of view." (CNN Politics). He added that “We lost in the largest state up for grabs yesterday, the state of Michigan. We lost in Mississippi, Missouri, and Idaho.” After a tight race between Bernie and Biden, the state of Washington was finally given to Biden with a discrepancy of 1.4%. The win has, once again, given Biden momentum toward winning the democratic presidential candidacy. Is this loss becoming the end of Sanders campaign? The Troubles with March 17th Photo depicting the amount of delegates up for grab in the participating states. The race for the democratic candidacy has been closer than ever. Another night means more delegates are up for grab...and now the states are Florida, Illinois, and Arizona, and unfortunately not Ohio. Amid the Coronavirus Outbreak that took the world by storm, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced that he’ll be postponing the Ohio primary until June 2nd to help stop the spread of the outbreak. The democratic primary has narrowed down to a two-man race between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. As of now, the race is looking favorably to Biden. Biden won all 3 states that participated in the primaries. Joe Biden won Florida with 61.83%, Illinois with 59.03%, and Arizona with 44.02% (Vox). Bernie did not win favorably, behind by several points averaging by 30.28 percent. Since we reside in Florida, it is notable to talk about the victory Joe Biden had among Latino voters. The Florida’s Democratic presidential primary showcased Biden’s strength among Latino voters, “who have been among Sander’s strongest sources of support.”(Vox). Biden did just that, “winning over a majority of the state’s latino voters, according to AP VoteCast. Latino Voters make up about fifth of the state’s democratic primary electorate, but are a very diverse group. Vox states that, “Though Cuban Americans have been more open to voting Democratic recently, they remain anti-Castro and have been wary of Sanders’ past praise of the Castro regime.” This success with the Latino group has made momentum for Biden to successfully claim the Democratic presidential candidate position. Postponement amid COVID-19All democratic primaries that were scheduled for March 24th, including Georgia, have been postponed amid the recent Coronavirus outbreak. What happens at the Democratic Convention?What does all this talk about gathering delegates really mean in the long run? To start, The Democratic convention is scheduled to be held from July 13-16, 2020 at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin according to Wikipedia. What is the democratic convention you might ask? Well, according to Business Insider, “ At the Democratic convention, a candidate will actually be nominated when a simple majority of 1,991 out of 3,979 total pledged delegates support a given candidate.”  Picture of upcoming setting of the 2020 Democratic Convention In ConclusionI hope that you now have a consensus on the democratic presidential candidacy elections! The primaries have yet to finish and more delegates will be handed out until someone reaches 1991 delegates! Will Biden take home the presidential candidacy or will Bernie somehow surpass him? Time will only tell but as for now, it's best if we stay home, social distance, and keep track of the numbers. Next stop: The 2020 Presidential Elections! Works Cited
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |