Picking A President: The 2016 Democratic Party Nomination Contest
Hillary Clinton was the person many expected to become the Democratic Party's candidate for President in 2008. That didn't happen, and when Barack Obama began his second term in office, early speculation began about whether Clinton would get another chance to become President in 2016. A January 2013 Washington Post-ABC News poll supported the idea that Clinton was a popular choice to succeed Obama and she soon emerged as the early front-runner for the Democratic nomination in 2016. Her nomination was not assured however. She faced a challenge from the party's liberal left wing. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren was suggested as a prospective opponent, but Warren denied any interest in running for President. Vice President Joe Biden, who had previously campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 and 2008 was also a possible candidate. However, on October 21, 2015, speaking from a podium in the Rose Garden with his wife and President Obama by his side, Biden announced that he would not run for President, citing the recent death of his son Beau, who had died weeks earlier at the age of 47.
On May 26, 2015, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders officially announced his run as a presidential candidate for the Democratic nomination. He had made an informal announcement on April 30. Sanders has been the Mayor of Burlington, Vermont from 1981-89, Vermont's sole U.S. Representative from 1991-2007, and Vermont's junior Senator since 2007. He became the biggest rival to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries, even though he sat in the Senate as an independent. Sanders was supported by a strong grassroots organization as well as a strong social media following. Other candidates entered the race, including former Senator Jim Webb, former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley and Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig.
Sanders surprised many with his strong performance in the Iowa Caucuses. Despite being heavily favored in polls issued weeks earlier, Clinton was only able to defeat Sanders in Iowa by the closest margin in the history of the Iowa caucuses: 49.8% to 49.6%
A week later on February 9, Sanders won the New Hampshire primary, receiving 60.4% of the popular vote to Clinton's 38%, putting him ahead of Clinton in the overall pledged delegate count by four. Clinton had won this primary in 2008, when she defeated Barack Obama.
Sanders' strong performance out of the gate was followed by another close race in Nevada, where Clinton finished first, but only by a margin of 52.6% to 47.3%. She did much better in South Carolina, winning 73.5% of the popular vote.
In 2016, the first "Super Tuesday" occurred on March 1st, when 11 states and the territory of American Samoa held their primaries or caucuses. A total of 865 pledged delegates were up for grabs that day. Clinton won 7 of the states as well as the race in American Samoa.
Clinton won in all of the southern states except Oklahoma. Her biggest margin of victory of the day came in Alabama, where she won 77.8% of the vote against Sanders' 19.2%. She won the most delegates in Texas, where she received 65.2% of the vote. In the southern states, she won a net gain of 165 pledged delegates. Elsewhere Clinton narrowly defeated Sanders in Massachusetts, as well as winning in the territory of American Samoa. Sanders scored comfortable wins in the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses and Oklahoma primary and won a landslide in his home state of Vermont.
Sanders' campaign rebounded during the weekend of March 5, 2016. He won caucuses in Kansas, Maine and Nebraska by significant margins. But Clinton's campaign met this with a win in Louisiana's primary, limiting Sanders' net gain for the weekend to only four delegates. Clinton went on to win in the Northern Mariana Islands caucus, held on March 12. She won the Mississippi primary by a landslide and scored a narrow win in Michigan. She later won primaries in Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, North Carolina and Florida, extending her pledged delegate lead by 100 delegates.
On March 21, the results of the Democrats Abroad primary were announced. Sanders picked up nine delegates to Clinton's four. Arizona, Idaho and Utah held primaries on March 22. Clinton won in Arizona, but lost in both Idaho and Utah. The next states to vote were Alaska, Hawaii and Washington on March 26, 2016. Sanders won them all as expected, finishing the day with a net gain of roughly 66 delegates over Clinton.
The Clinton and Sanders campaigns reached an agreement on April 4 for a ninth debate to take place on April 14 (five days before the New York primary) in Brooklyn, New York. On April 5, Sanders won the Wisconsin primary by 14 points, closing his delegate deficit by 10 more. The Wyoming caucuses were held on April 9, which Sanders won with 55.7%. On April 19, Clinton won New York by 16 points. On April 26 she also won in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Connecticut while Sanders won the Rhode Island primary. On May 3, Sanders pulled off a surprise victory in the Indiana primary, winning over Clinton by a five-point margin despite trailing in all the state's polls. Clinton then won the Guam caucus on May 7 and, on May 10, she won the Nebraska primary[118] while Sanders won in West Virginia. Clinton narrowly won Kentucky on May 17 by half a percentage point, but the same day, Sanders won in Oregon where he gained nine delegates.
June contained the final contests of the Democratic primaries. Both candidates invested heavily into winning the California primary. On June 4 and 5, Clinton won two decisive victories in the Virgin Islands caucus and Puerto Rico primary. On June 6, both the Associated Press and NBC News reported that Clinton had sufficient support from pledged and unpledged delegates to become the presumptive Democratic nominee. Sanders' campaign stated it would continue to run and accused the media of a "rush to judgement." Six states held their primaries on June 7. Clinton won in California, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota. Sanders won Montana and North Dakota. Clinton finally declared victory on the evening of June 7. Despite this, Sanders announced that he would continue to run for the Democratic Party's nomination in the final primary in the District of Columbia on June 14, which Clinton won.
On July 12, 2016, Sanders endorsed Clinton in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Controversy erupted 10 days later when on July 22, 2016, WikiLeaks released tens of thousands of messages leaked from the e-mail accounts of seven key DNC staff. Some of these e-mails showed that some staff had a preferences that Clinton should become the nominee and that the party's leadership had worked to undermine Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign. DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz called the accusations lies. Despite her denial, Wasserman Schultz resigned from her position prior to the convention.
Following Wasserman Schultz's resignation, then-DNC Vice Chair Donna Brazile took over as interim DNC chairwoman for the convention and remained so until February 2017. Later, in November 2017, Brazile disclosed in her book the Clinton campaign and the DNC had colluded in an unethical manner by giving the Clinton campaign control over the DNC's personnel and press releases before the primary in return for funding to eliminate the DNC's remaining debt from 2012 campaign. The DNC and state committees also allowed the Clinton campaign to funnel campaign-limitation-exceeding donations to her campaign.
More controversy later arose after the general election, when the U.S. intelligence community and the Special Counsel investigation assessed that the leaks were part of a larger interference campaign by the Russian government to cause political instability in the United States and to damage the Clinton campaign by bolstering the candidacies of Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and Jill Stein. In July 2018, a special counsel indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking and leaking the emails.
The 2016 Democratic National Convention was held from July 25-28 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. A simple majority of 2,383 delegates was needed to win the presidential nomination. Clinton was nominated on the first ballot by acclamation, although all states were allowed to announce how they would have voted under a typical roll call vote. On July 12, 2016, the Vermont delegates had supported Clinton, at Sanders' request. Sanders made a plea for party unity. He dropped out on July 26, 2016 and announced he would return to the Senate as an independent.
On May 26, 2015, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders officially announced his run as a presidential candidate for the Democratic nomination. He had made an informal announcement on April 30. Sanders has been the Mayor of Burlington, Vermont from 1981-89, Vermont's sole U.S. Representative from 1991-2007, and Vermont's junior Senator since 2007. He became the biggest rival to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries, even though he sat in the Senate as an independent. Sanders was supported by a strong grassroots organization as well as a strong social media following. Other candidates entered the race, including former Senator Jim Webb, former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley and Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig.
Sanders surprised many with his strong performance in the Iowa Caucuses. Despite being heavily favored in polls issued weeks earlier, Clinton was only able to defeat Sanders in Iowa by the closest margin in the history of the Iowa caucuses: 49.8% to 49.6%
A week later on February 9, Sanders won the New Hampshire primary, receiving 60.4% of the popular vote to Clinton's 38%, putting him ahead of Clinton in the overall pledged delegate count by four. Clinton had won this primary in 2008, when she defeated Barack Obama.
Sanders' strong performance out of the gate was followed by another close race in Nevada, where Clinton finished first, but only by a margin of 52.6% to 47.3%. She did much better in South Carolina, winning 73.5% of the popular vote.
In 2016, the first "Super Tuesday" occurred on March 1st, when 11 states and the territory of American Samoa held their primaries or caucuses. A total of 865 pledged delegates were up for grabs that day. Clinton won 7 of the states as well as the race in American Samoa.
Clinton won in all of the southern states except Oklahoma. Her biggest margin of victory of the day came in Alabama, where she won 77.8% of the vote against Sanders' 19.2%. She won the most delegates in Texas, where she received 65.2% of the vote. In the southern states, she won a net gain of 165 pledged delegates. Elsewhere Clinton narrowly defeated Sanders in Massachusetts, as well as winning in the territory of American Samoa. Sanders scored comfortable wins in the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses and Oklahoma primary and won a landslide in his home state of Vermont.
Sanders' campaign rebounded during the weekend of March 5, 2016. He won caucuses in Kansas, Maine and Nebraska by significant margins. But Clinton's campaign met this with a win in Louisiana's primary, limiting Sanders' net gain for the weekend to only four delegates. Clinton went on to win in the Northern Mariana Islands caucus, held on March 12. She won the Mississippi primary by a landslide and scored a narrow win in Michigan. She later won primaries in Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, North Carolina and Florida, extending her pledged delegate lead by 100 delegates.
On March 21, the results of the Democrats Abroad primary were announced. Sanders picked up nine delegates to Clinton's four. Arizona, Idaho and Utah held primaries on March 22. Clinton won in Arizona, but lost in both Idaho and Utah. The next states to vote were Alaska, Hawaii and Washington on March 26, 2016. Sanders won them all as expected, finishing the day with a net gain of roughly 66 delegates over Clinton.
The Clinton and Sanders campaigns reached an agreement on April 4 for a ninth debate to take place on April 14 (five days before the New York primary) in Brooklyn, New York. On April 5, Sanders won the Wisconsin primary by 14 points, closing his delegate deficit by 10 more. The Wyoming caucuses were held on April 9, which Sanders won with 55.7%. On April 19, Clinton won New York by 16 points. On April 26 she also won in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Connecticut while Sanders won the Rhode Island primary. On May 3, Sanders pulled off a surprise victory in the Indiana primary, winning over Clinton by a five-point margin despite trailing in all the state's polls. Clinton then won the Guam caucus on May 7 and, on May 10, she won the Nebraska primary[118] while Sanders won in West Virginia. Clinton narrowly won Kentucky on May 17 by half a percentage point, but the same day, Sanders won in Oregon where he gained nine delegates.
June contained the final contests of the Democratic primaries. Both candidates invested heavily into winning the California primary. On June 4 and 5, Clinton won two decisive victories in the Virgin Islands caucus and Puerto Rico primary. On June 6, both the Associated Press and NBC News reported that Clinton had sufficient support from pledged and unpledged delegates to become the presumptive Democratic nominee. Sanders' campaign stated it would continue to run and accused the media of a "rush to judgement." Six states held their primaries on June 7. Clinton won in California, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota. Sanders won Montana and North Dakota. Clinton finally declared victory on the evening of June 7. Despite this, Sanders announced that he would continue to run for the Democratic Party's nomination in the final primary in the District of Columbia on June 14, which Clinton won.
On July 12, 2016, Sanders endorsed Clinton in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Controversy erupted 10 days later when on July 22, 2016, WikiLeaks released tens of thousands of messages leaked from the e-mail accounts of seven key DNC staff. Some of these e-mails showed that some staff had a preferences that Clinton should become the nominee and that the party's leadership had worked to undermine Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign. DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz called the accusations lies. Despite her denial, Wasserman Schultz resigned from her position prior to the convention.
Following Wasserman Schultz's resignation, then-DNC Vice Chair Donna Brazile took over as interim DNC chairwoman for the convention and remained so until February 2017. Later, in November 2017, Brazile disclosed in her book the Clinton campaign and the DNC had colluded in an unethical manner by giving the Clinton campaign control over the DNC's personnel and press releases before the primary in return for funding to eliminate the DNC's remaining debt from 2012 campaign. The DNC and state committees also allowed the Clinton campaign to funnel campaign-limitation-exceeding donations to her campaign.
More controversy later arose after the general election, when the U.S. intelligence community and the Special Counsel investigation assessed that the leaks were part of a larger interference campaign by the Russian government to cause political instability in the United States and to damage the Clinton campaign by bolstering the candidacies of Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and Jill Stein. In July 2018, a special counsel indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking and leaking the emails.
The 2016 Democratic National Convention was held from July 25-28 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. A simple majority of 2,383 delegates was needed to win the presidential nomination. Clinton was nominated on the first ballot by acclamation, although all states were allowed to announce how they would have voted under a typical roll call vote. On July 12, 2016, the Vermont delegates had supported Clinton, at Sanders' request. Sanders made a plea for party unity. He dropped out on July 26, 2016 and announced he would return to the Senate as an independent.