2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries

2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries
← 2012 February 1 to June 14, 2016 2020 →
4,763 delegate votes to the Democratic National Convention
2,382 delegate votes needed to win
 
Candidate Hillary Clinton Bernie Sanders
Home state New York Vermont
Delegate count 2,842 1,865
Contests won 34 23
Popular vote 16,917,853[a][1] 13,210,550[a][1]
Percentage 55.2%[a] 43.1%[a]
2016 California Democratic primary2016 Oregon Democratic primary2016 Washington Democratic caucuses2016 Idaho Democratic caucuses2016 Nevada Democratic caucuses2016 Utah Democratic caucuses2016 Arizona Democratic primary2016 Montana Democratic primary2016 Wyoming Democratic caucuses2016 Colorado Democratic caucuses2016 New Mexico Democratic primary2016 North Dakota Democratic caucuses2016 South Dakota Democratic primary2016 Nebraska Democratic caucuses2016 Kansas Democratic caucuses2016 Oklahoma Democratic primary2016 Texas Democratic primary2016 Minnesota Democratic caucuses2016 Iowa Democratic caucuses2016 Missouri Democratic primary2016 Arkansas Democratic primary2016 Louisiana Democratic primary2016 Wisconsin Democratic primary2016 Illinois Democratic primary2016 Michigan Democratic primary2016 Indiana Democratic primary2016 Ohio Democratic primary2016 Kentucky Democratic primary2016 Tennessee Democratic primary2016 Mississippi Democratic primary2016 Alabama Democratic primary2016 Georgia Democratic primary2016 Florida Democratic primary2016 South Carolina Democratic primary2016 North Carolina Democratic primary2016 Virginia Democratic primary2016 West Virginia Democratic primary2016 District of Columbia Democratic primary2016 Maryland Democratic primary2016 Delaware Democratic primary2016 Pennsylvania Democratic primary2016 New Jersey Democratic primary2016 New York Democratic primary2016 Connecticut Democratic primary2016 Rhode Island Democratic primary2016 Vermont Democratic primary2016 New Hampshire Democratic primary2016 Maine Democratic caucuses2016 Massachusetts Democratic primary2016 Alaska Democratic caucuses2016 Hawaii Democratic caucuses2016 Puerto Rico Democratic primary2016 United States Virgin Islands Democratic caucuses2016 Northern Mariana Islands Democratic caucuses2016 American Samoa Democratic caucuses2016 Guam Democratic caucuses2016 Democrats Abroad primary
First place by initial pledged delegate allocation
Previous Democratic nominee

Barack Obama

 Democratic nominee

Hillary Clinton

Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select the 4,051 delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention held July 25–28 and determine the nominee for President in the 2016 United States presidential election. The elections took place within all fifty U.S. states, the District of Columbia, five U.S. territories, and Democrats Abroad and occurred between February 1 and June 14, 2016. Between 2008 and 2020, this was the only Democratic Party primary in which the nominee had never been nor had ever become President of the United States. This was the first Democratic primary to nominate a woman for President.

2016 U.S. presidential election
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Six major candidates entered the race starting April 12, 2015, when former Secretary of State and New York Senator Hillary Clinton formally announced her second bid for the presidency. She was followed by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, former Governor of Maryland Martin O'Malley, former Governor of Rhode Island Lincoln Chafee, former Virginia Senator Jim Webb and Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig. A draft movement was started to encourage Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren to seek the presidency. Warren declined to run, as did incumbent Vice President Joe Biden. Webb, Chafee, and Lessig withdrew prior to the February 1, 2016, Iowa caucuses.[2][3]

Clinton won Iowa by the closest margin in the history of the state's Democratic caucus to date. O'Malley suspended[b] his campaign after a distant third-place finish, leaving Clinton and Sanders as the only two candidates. The race turned out to be more competitive than expected, with Sanders decisively winning New Hampshire, while Clinton subsequently won Nevada and won a landslide victory in South Carolina. Clinton then secured numerous important wins in each of the nine most populous states including California, New York, Florida, and Texas, while Sanders scored various victories in between. He then laid off a majority of staff after the New York primary and Clinton's multi-state sweep on April 26.[5] On June 6, the Associated Press and NBC News stated that Clinton had become the presumptive nominee after reaching the required number of delegates, including both pledged and unpledged delegates (superdelegates), to secure the nomination. In doing so, she became the first woman to ever be the presumptive nominee of any major political party in the United States.[6] On June 7, Clinton secured a majority of pledged delegates after winning in the California and New Jersey primaries.[7] President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren endorsed Clinton on June 9.[8][9] Sanders confirmed on June 24 that he would vote for Clinton over Donald Trump in the general election[10] and endorsed Clinton on July 12 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.[11]

On July 22, WikiLeaks published the Democratic National Committee email leak, in which DNC operatives seemed to deride Bernie Sanders' campaign[12] and discuss ways to advance Clinton's nomination,[13] leading to the resignation of DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other implicated officials. The leak was allegedly part of an operation by the Russian government to undermine Hillary Clinton.[14][15] Although the ensuing controversy initially focused on emails that dated from relatively late in the primary, when Clinton was already close to securing the nomination,[13] the emails cast doubt on the DNC's neutrality and, according to Sanders operatives and multiple media commentators, showed that the DNC had favored Clinton since early on.[16][17][18][19][20] This was evidenced by alleged bias in the scheduling and conduct of the debates,[c] as well as controversial DNC–Clinton agreements regarding financial arrangements and control over policy and hiring decisions.[d] Other media commentators have disputed the significance of the emails, arguing that the DNC's internal preference for Clinton was not historically unusual and did not affect the primary enough to sway the outcome, as Clinton received over 3 million more popular votes and 359 more pledged delegates than Sanders.[28][29][30][31][32] The controversies ultimately led to the formation of a DNC "unity" commission to recommend reforms in the party's primary process.[33][34]

On July 26, 2016, the Democratic National Convention officially nominated Clinton for president[35] and a day later, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine for vice president.[36] Clinton and Kaine would go on to lose to the Republican ticket of Donald Trump and Mike Pence in the general election.


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  1. ^ a b Berg-Andersson, Richard E. "Democratic Convention". The Green Papers. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  2. ^ Reston, Laura (October 14, 2015). "Americans Love an Underdog—Just Not Lincoln Chafee, Jim Webb, or Martin O'Malley". New Republic. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  3. ^ Strauss, Daniel (November 2, 2015). "Lessig drops out of presidential race". Politico. Retrieved November 2, 2015.
  4. ^ Ballhaus, Rebecca (February 11, 2016). "Why Candidates 'Suspend' Losing Campaigns Rather Than Say 'I Quit'". The Wall Street Journal.
  5. ^ "Sanders Lays Off Staff After Tuesday Primary Losses". NBC News. Retrieved April 29, 2016.
  6. ^ Dann, Carrie (June 6, 2016). "Clinton hits 'magic number' of delegates to clinch nomination". NBC News. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
  7. ^ "Hillary Clinton secures majority of pledged delegate". Politico. June 8, 2016. Retrieved June 15, 2016.
  8. ^ Eric Bradner (June 9, 2016). "Obama endorses Hillary Clinton in video". CNN. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  9. ^ Bixby, Scott (June 9, 2016). "Hillary Clinton gets endorsements from Obama, Biden and Elizabeth Warren – as it happened". The Guardian. Retrieved June 15, 2016.
  10. ^ "US Election: Bernie Sanders says he will vote for Hillary Clinton". ABC News. Reuters. June 24, 2016. Retrieved June 24, 2016.
  11. ^ Keith, Tamara (July 11, 2016). "Sanders And Clinton To Rally Together In New Hampshire". npr.org. Retrieved July 12, 2016.
  12. ^ "Released Emails Suggest the D.N.C. Derided the Sanders Campaign". Retrieved November 6, 2018.
  13. ^ a b Blake, Aaron (July 25, 2016). "Here are the latest, most damaging things in the DNC's leaked emails". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 6, 2018.
  14. ^ Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima and Greg Miller (December 9, 2016), "Secret CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House", The Washington Post, retrieved December 10, 2016
  15. ^ Shane Harris, Ellen Nakashima and Craig Timberg (April 18, 2019), "Through email leaks and propaganda, Russians sought to elect Trump, Mueller finds", The Washington Post, retrieved June 2, 2019
  16. ^ "Elizabeth Warren agrees Democratic race 'rigged' for Clinton". BBC News. November 3, 2017. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
  17. ^ Schleifer, Theodore (July 25, 2016). "What was in the DNC email leak?". CNN. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
  18. ^ Chan, Melissa (July 24, 2016). "Bernie Sanders Calls for Debbie Wasserman Schultz to Resign After Email Leak". Time. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
  19. ^ Yuhas, Alan (July 24, 2016). "Hillary Clinton campaign blames leaked DNC emails about Sanders on Russia". The Guardian. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
  20. ^ Flaherty, Anne (July 24, 2016). "Sanders Calls for DNC Chair's Resignation as Hacked Emails Overshadow Convention". Haaretz. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
  21. ^ "Democratic primary debate schedule criticized as Clinton 'coronation'". The Guardian. August 6, 2015.
  22. ^ Andrew Prokop (August 6, 2015). "The Democrats just released their debate schedule, and it's great news for Hillary Clinton". Vox. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  23. ^ Harry Enten (May 6, 2016). "Is Six Democratic Debates Too Few?". FiveThirtyEight. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
  24. ^ Caputo, Marc (July 24, 2016). "Wasserman Schultz steps down as DNC chair". Politico. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
  25. ^ "www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-updates-former-senior-aide-to-bernie-sanders-1476297181-htmlstory.html". A Times. October 12, 2016.
  26. ^ Brazile, Donna (November 2, 2017). "Inside Hillary Clinton's Secret Takeover of the DNC". Politico. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
  27. ^ Stein, Jeff (November 2, 2017). "Donna Brazile's bombshell about the DNC and Hillary Clinton, explained". Vox. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  28. ^ a b Heersink, Boris (November 4, 2017). "No, the DNC didn’t 'rig' the Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
  29. ^ Houle, Dana (July 25, 2016). "No, the DNC Didn’t Rig the Primary in Favor of Hillary". The New Republic. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
  30. ^ Holland, Joshua (July 29, 2016). "What the Leaked E-mails Do and Don’t Tell Us About the DNC and Bernie Sanders" Archived December 5, 2019, at the Wayback Machine. The Nation. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
  31. ^ Gaughan, Anthony J. (August 27, 2019). "Was the Democratic Nomination Rigged? A Reexamination of the Clinton-Sanders Presidential Race". University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy (29). SSRN 3443916. Retrieved October 29, 2020. This article [...] contends that the overwhelming weight of evidence makes clear the 2016 Democratic nomination process was not rigged in favor of Hillary Clinton. Second, this article argues that the Democratic Party rules and state election laws actually hurt Clinton and benefited Sanders.
  32. ^ Wolf, Z. Byron (November 4, 2017). "Could Bernie Sanders have won a primary that wasn't 'rigged'? Um. | CNN Politics". CNN. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  33. ^ Robillard, Kevin (December 9, 2017). "DNC 'unity' panel recommends huge cut in superdelegates". Politico. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  34. ^ Seitz-Wald, Alex (August 25, 2018). "Democrats strip superdelegates of power and reform caucuses in 'historic' move". NBC News. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  35. ^ "Hillary Clinton breaks the glass ceiling". Politico. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
  36. ^ Hook, Janet (July 27, 2016). "Tim Kaine Accepts Vice-Presidential Nomination at Democratic National Convention". Wall Street Journal.