2020 Alabama Democratic presidential primary

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60Democratic National Convention delegates (52 pledged with 34 on district-level and 18 statewide; 8 unpledged) The number of pledged delegates won is determined by the popular vote
Candidate Joe Biden Bernie Sanders Home state Delaware Vermont Delegate count 44 8 Popular vote 286,065 74,755 Percentage 63.28% 16.54%   Candidate Michael Bloomberg Elizabeth Warren Home state New York Massachusetts Delegate count 0 0 Popular vote 52,750 25,847 Percentage 11.67% 5.72%
County results Congressional district results Biden   40 – 50%   50 – 60%   60 – 70%   70 – 80% Congressional district results   Joe Biden

The2020 Alabama Democratic presidential primary took place on March 3, 2020, as one of 15 contests scheduled onSuper Tuesday in theDemocratic Party primaries for the2020 presidential election. Theopen primary allocated 52 pledgeddelegates towards the2020 Democratic National Convention, distributed in proportion to the results of the primary, statewide and within eachcongressional district. The state was also given an additional 8 unpledged delegates (superdelegates), whose votes at the convention were not bound to the result of the primary.

Five candidates ran in this primary, including former vice presidentJoe Biden, senatorBernie Sanders fromVermont, formerNew York City mayorMichael Bloomberg, senatorElizabeth Warren fromMassachusetts, and representativeTulsi Gabbard fromHawaii. Nine other candidates who withdrew prior to the contest were also on the ballot. Joe Biden won by an overwhelming landslide, winning everycounty and congressional district in the state. He received 63% of the vote and was awarded 44 delegates. Senator Sanders came in second place, with roughly 17% of the vote and 8 delegates. No other candidate received any delegates: Bloomberg missed the threshold with 12%, and Warren only received 6%. All other candidates received under 1% of the vote.^[2]

Alabama was part of 14 states and one territory holding primaries on March 3, 2020, also known as "Super Tuesday,"^[3] having joined other southern states on the date after a bill signed on June 10, 2015, shifted the date.^[4]

Voting took place from 7 a.m. until 7 p.mCST. In the open primary, candidates had to meet a threshold of 15 percent at the congressional district or statewide level in order to be considered viable for delegates. The 52 pledged delegates to the2020 Democratic National Convention were allocated proportionally on the basis of the results of the primary. Of these, between 3 and 8 were allocated to each of thestate's 7 congressional districts and another 7 were allocated to party leaders and elected officials (PLEO delegates), in addition to 11 at-large delegates.^[1] The Super Tuesday primary as part of Stage I on the primary timetable received no bonus delegates, in order to disperse the primaries between more different date clusters and keep too many states from hoarding on the first shared date or on a March date in general.^[5]

Should presidential candidates have been allocated more delegates based on the results of the primary than delegate candidates presented, then supplemental delegates would be elected at caucuses on March 28, 2020.^[6] Regular national convention district delegates, whose names were electable on the primary ballot beneath the presidential candidates they were pledged for, were elected on the day of the primary and published on March 28, 2020. The state executive committee meeting was held on June 6, 2020, to vote on the 11 at-large and 7 pledged PLEO delegates for theDemocratic National Convention; the meeting had been postponed from April 4, due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. The delegation also included 8 unpledged PLEO delegates: 6 members of theDemocratic National Committee and 2 members of Congress (senatorDoug Jones and representativeTerri Sewell).^[1]

The following people filed for the presidential primary and were on the ballot in Alabama:^[7]

Running

Withdrawn

There was an uncommitted option on the ballot, as well.^[7]

According to theFederal Election Commission, between April 1, 2019, and November 23, 2020,Joe Biden raised $2,412,420.93 from Alabama-based contributions.^[8]Bernie Sanders raised $306,101.54,^[9]Michael Bloomberg raised $212.82,^[10]Elizabeth Warren raised $129,887.99,^[11] andTulsi Gabbard raised $19,775.81.^[12][d]

Joe Biden's victory inAlabama was near-guaranteed.Four years earlier,Hillary Clinton carried the state with 77.84% againstBernie Sanders and won every county and congressional district, a feat repeated by Biden.^[21]FiveThirtyEight, which made state-by-state predictions prior to the primaries, gave Biden a 92% chance at winning Alabama, a landslide over Sanders' 5% chance.^[22] Aggregate polling from FiveThirtyEight right before election day showed Biden up with 40.2%, Sanders at 18.4%, Bloomberg at 15.9%, Warren at 10.9%, Gabbard at 0.5%, and other/undecided 14.1%.^[23]270toWin had Biden ahead as well with 44.5% of support, 23.5 percentage points ahead of Bernie Sanders at 21%.^[24]

The week before, Biden swept theSouth Carolina primary by a 28.88% margin over Sanders, reviving Biden's candidacy after crushing losses inIowa,New Hampshire, andNevada.^[25] Additionally, the moderate wing of the primary, consisting of formerSouth Bend MayorPete Buttigieg, SenatorAmy Klobuchar fromMinnesota,representativeBeto O'Rourke fromTexas's 16th district, and SenatorKamala Harris fromCalifornia coalesced behind and endorsed Biden while the progressive wing, consisting of Senators Sanders and Warren, remained fractured.^{[26][27][28][29][30]} Thus, right before Super Tuesday, Biden's support surged.

Biden's best performance, regionally, was in theBlack Belt, a historically Democratic region due to high proportions of African Americans.

On the same day, Biden carried all of the other southern Super Tuesday states ofArkansas,North Carolina,Oklahoma,Tennessee,Texas, andVirginia, and his upset victories inMaine,Massachusetts, andMinnesota catapulted him to frontrunner status.^[31] He would go on to lose the state inthe general election, but retained his resounding victories among Black voters in the Black Belt.

• 2020 Alabama Republican presidential primary

• The Green Papers delegate allocation summary
• Alabama Democratic Party delegate selection plan
• FiveThirtyEight Alabama primary poll tracker

• 2020 United States Democratic presidential primaries by state
• 2020 Alabama elections
• Alabama Democratic primaries

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