2020 New York Democratic presidential primary

The 2020 New York Democratic presidential primary took place on Tuesday, June 23, 2020 as part of the Democratic Party presidential primaries for the 2020 presidential election. The New York primary is a closed primary, with the state awarding 320 delegates, of which 274 are pledged delegates allocated on the basis of the results of the primary.

2020 New York Democratic presidential primary

June 23, 2020
320 delegates (274 pledged, 46 unpledged) to the Democratic National Convention
Candidate Joe Biden Bernie Sanders Home state Delaware Vermont Delegate count 231 43 Popular vote 1,136,679 285,908 Percentage 64.62% 16.25%
Election results by county   Joe Biden

The Associated Press (AP) declared that Joe Biden won the New York Democratic presidential primary.[1]

Procedure

New York originally joined several northeastern states in holding primaries on the same date (April 28, 2020),[2] often dubbed the "Acela primary" in reference to the namesake Amtrak service.[3] State statute originally had mandated that the primary would be held on February 4 for procedural reasons.[2] In September 2019, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill into law that designated April 28, 2020, as the state's presidential primary date, aligning it with other states' contests on the same day.[4] Primaries for other offices (federal, state, and local) were scheduled to take place on June 23, 2020.[5][6] Cuomo announced on March 28, 2020 that the presidential primary would be postponed to June 23 because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.[7]

Voting is expected to take place throughout the state from 6:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. In the closed primary, candidates must meet a threshold of 15 percent at the congressional district or statewide level in order to be considered viable. The 224 pledged delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention will be allocated proportionally on the basis of the results of the primary. Of the 224 pledged delegates, between 5 and 10 are allocated to each of the state's 27 congressional districts and another 37 are allocated to party leaders and elected officials (PLEO delegates), in addition to 49 at-large pledged delegates. These delegate totals do not account for pledged delegate bonuses or penalties from timing or clustering.[8]

District-level delegates are selected by voters on the presidential primary ballot. Should candidates be entitled to more delegates based on the results of the primary than eligible delegates presented, then additional delegates will be designated by the state committee at a special post-primary caucus before the state convention. The state Democratic committee meeting, slated for May 2020, will vote on the 49 pledged at-large and 37 PLEO delegates to send to the Democratic National Convention. The 224 pledged delegates New York sends to the national convention will be joined by 46 unpledged PLEO delegates (21 members of the Democratic National Committee; 23 members of Congress, including both Senators, notably Kirsten Gillibrand, and 21 U.S. Representatives; the governor; and former president Bill Clinton).[8]

Cancellation and rescheduling

On April 27, 2020, the Democratic Commissioners at the New York State Board of Elections removed all candidates that had ended or suspended their campaigns for president from the ballot pursuant to NYS Election Law 2-122(a), arguing that only one candidate remained in the race so no primary needed to be held. The commissioners cited the COVID-19 pandemic and millions of dollars in expenses.[9]

On April 28, Andrew Yang sued the New York State Board of Elections over this decision, saying that it "creates a dangerous precedent".[10] On May 5, a federal judge ruled that the primary election must proceed with the candidates and delegates who were on the ballot as of April 26 while the primary will be held on June 23, 2020.[11] The State appealed the decision to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, [12][13] but lost the appeal on May 19 and will not appeal further.[14]

Polling

Polling aggregation
Source of poll aggregation	Date updated	Dates polled	Joe Biden	Bernie Sanders	Other/ Undecided[lower-alpha 1]
FiveThirtyEight	Mar 18, 2020	until Mar 18, 2020 [lower-alpha 2]	51.7%	28.9%	21.4%

Poll source	Date(s) administered	Sample size[lower-alpha 3]	Margin of error	Joe Biden	Michael Bloomberg	Pete Buttigieg	Kamala Harris	Amy Klobuchar	Bernie Sanders	Elizabeth Warren	Other	Un- decided
	Apr 8, 2020	Sanders suspends his campaign
	Mar 19, 2020	Gabbard withdraws from the race
	Mar 1–5, 2020	Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Bloomberg, and Warren withdraw from the race
Siena College Research Institute	Feb 16–20, 2020	315 (RV)	–	13%	21%	9%	–	9%	25%	11%	1%[lower-alpha 4]	11%
	Feb 3, 2020	Iowa caucus is held
Civis Analytics/Data For Progress	Jan 13–19, 2020	845 (LV)	–	30%	17%	7%	–	2%	17%	14%	15%[lower-alpha 5]	–
	Dec 3, 2019	Harris withdraws from the race
Siena College	Nov 12–18, 2019	797 (RV)	± 4.0%	24%	–	5%	3%	1%	13%	14%	12%[lower-alpha 6]	29%[lower-alpha 7]
Siena College	Oct 6–10, 2019	340 (RV)	± 6.5%	21%	–	4%	4%	1%	16%	21%	10%[lower-alpha 8]	24%[lower-alpha 9]
	Sep 20, 2019	de Blasio withdraws from the race
Siena College*	Sep 8–12, 2019	359 (RV)	± 6.1%	22%	–	3%	4%	1%	15%	17%	4%[lower-alpha 10]	34%
	Aug 28, 2019	Gillibrand withdraws from the race

Head-to-head polls

Poll source	Date(s) administered	Sample size[lower-alpha 3]	Margin of error	Bill de Blasio	Kirsten Gillibrand	Other	Undecided
Siena College	Jun 2–6, 2019	385	–	25%	56%	11%	8%

Results

2020 New York Democratic presidential primary[15]

Candidate	Votes	%	Delegates[16]
Joe Biden	1,136,679	64.62%	231
Bernie Sanders (suspended)	285,908	16.25%	43
Blank	135,486	7.70%
Elizabeth Warren (withdrawn)	82,917	4.71%
Michael Bloomberg (withdrawn)	39,433	2.24%
Pete Buttigieg (withdrawn)	22,927	1.30%
Andrew Yang (withdrawn)	22,686	1.29%
Amy Klobuchar (withdrawn)	11,028	0.63%
Tulsi Gabbard (withdrawn)	9,083	0.52%
Void	4,621	0.26%
Deval Patrick (withdrawn)	3,040	0.17%
Michael Bennet (withdrawn)	2,932	0.17%
Tom Steyer (withdrawn)	2,299	0.13%
Total	1,759,039	100%	274

See also

• 2020 New York state elections

Notes

1. Calculated by taking the difference of 100% and all other candidates combined
2. FiveThirtyEight aggregates polls with a trendline regression of polls rather than a strict average of recent polls.
3. Key:
   A – all adults
   RV – registered voters
   LV – likely voters
   V – unclear
4. Gabbard with 1%; Steyer with 0%
5. Steyer and Yang with 4%; Bennet with 2%; Delaney, Gabbard, and Patrick with 1%
6. Booker and Yang with 2%; Bennet, Castro, and Gabbard with 1%; Bullock, Delaney, Messam, Patrick, Sestak, Steyer and Williamson with 0%; others with 4%
7. also includes "refused"
8. Yang with 3%; Booker, and O'Rourke with 1%; de Blasio and Gabbard with <1%; other with 4%
9. also includes "refused"
10. Gabbard and Yang with 1%; Booker, de Blasio, Castro and O'Rourke with less than 1%; "Other" with 1%

References

1. "The Latest: Democratic Ky. Senate primary too early to call". AP NEWS. June 23, 2020. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
2. Putnam, Josh. "The 2020 Presidential Primary Calendar". Frontloading HQ. Retrieved September 18, 2019.
3. 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.
4. Putnam, Josh (September 16, 2019). "New York Presidential Primary Shifts to April 28". Frontloading HQ. Retrieved September 17, 2019.
5. "Upcoming Elections". New York State Board of Elections. Retrieved 2020-03-25.
6. Weiner, Mark (Sep 16, 2019). "Primary day in NY: When is election for 2020 presidential primary?". syracuse.com. The Post-Standard. Retrieved 2020-03-31.
7. Kristina Sgueglia (March 28, 2020). "New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo moves state's presidential primary". CNN. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
8. "New York Democratic Delegation 2020". The Green Papers. May 3, 2019. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
9. Bill Mahoney (April 27, 2020). "New York cancels Democratic presidential primary". Politico. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
10. Paul LeBlanc (April 28, 2020). "Andrew Yang sues over New York's canceled presidential primary". CNN. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
11. Ethan Cohen; Liz Stark; Caroline Kelly (May 5, 2020). "Judge rules New York Democratic presidential primary will take place as planned". CNN. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
12. Scher, Isaac (May 7, 2020). "New York election officials are trying to remove Bernie Sanders from the presidential primary ballot — again". Business Insider. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
13. The Associated Press (May 15, 2020). "Appeals Judges Seem Apt to Let Presidential Primary Proceed". The New York Times. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
14. Mahoney, Bill (May 19, 2020). "Appellate court orders New York to hold presidential primary, state will drop appeal". Politico. Retrieved May 19, 2020.
15. "Certified Results from the June 23, 2020 Presidential Primary Election" (PDF). New York State Board of Elections. 18 September 2020. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
16. "2020 Presidential Primaries, Caucuses, and Conventions: New York Democrat". The Green Papers. Retrieved 3 July 2020.

External links

• The Green Papers delegate allocation summary
• New York State Democratic Committee draft delegate selection plan
• FiveThirtyEight New York primary poll tracker