Democratic Primaries
Related: About this forumWhy Biden has a distinct advantage moving forward in the Democratic contest
One of the key ways in which a Democratic presidential nominating contest differs from a Republican one is that the Democrats, true to form, have a much more egalitarian way of distributing delegates. In Republican contests, many primaries are winner-take-all (win the state, get all the delegates) or winner-take-most (hopefully self-explanatory). In the Democratic contest, any candidate who gets at least 15 percent statewide or in any congressional district gets a cut of the delegates at stake.
In the abstract, its a feature that rewards candidates who stick around and continue to campaign. In practice, though, it very quickly means that a candidate with a lead can hold it. Thats one of the reasons that former vice president Joe Biden now has a significant advantage over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Democratic race.
Before we dig into this too much, we need to offer two caveats. The first is that, as of writing, its been less than a week since Bidens campaign seemed to be on life support. Things changed swiftly once Biden won South Carolina on Saturday, and things presumably could change just as quickly in some other direction. This is admittedly a cop-out; what such a dramatic change in a different direction might look like is hard to imagine. But its 2020, and everything in the universe is in flux, and that flux might yield some earthquake before sunrise tomorrow. Who knows!
The second caveat is that Biden might not actually have a lead at the moment. The vote from Tuesday is not entirely final, and the delegates who were at stake in the more than 180 contests that day (every state and every congressional district in those states) havent been finalized. Thats the case especially with California, for which there are scores of delegates to be determined in a state that Sanders won. Sanderss lead could fade or grow, both of which would affect the delegate math.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/05/why-biden-has-distinct-advantage-moving-forward-democratic-contest/
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
msongs
(67,465 posts)biden welcomes establishment dems and non-establishment dems too
biden welcomes people with all sorts of health care solutions, the other guy..umm not
biden welcomes all working class people
biden welcomes all middle class people
biden welcomes people of all income levels...the other guy not
biden believes people in mississippi are important
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Laelth
(32,017 posts)The Washington Post is just having a sad. Theres no horse race any more to talk about.
-Laelth
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
beachbumbob
(9,263 posts)matter of fact I see Biden has gain some delegates on Sanders in California at the moment 93% reporting and Joe has 116 to sanders 167
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
msongs
(67,465 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
beachbumbob
(9,263 posts)I believe.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden