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60 delegates (54 pledged, 6 unpledged) to theDemocratic National Convention | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Pledgednational convention delegates | |
|---|---|
| Type | Del. |
| CD1 | 4 |
| CD2 | 9 |
| CD3 | 5 |
| CD4 | 6 |
| CD5 | 6 |
| CD6 | 5 |
| PLEO | 7 |
| At-large | 12 |
| Total pledged delegates | 54 |
The2020 Louisiana Democratic presidential primary took place on July 11, 2020, a Saturday, in theDemocratic Party primaries for the2020 presidential election. It was originally planned for April 4 together with three other primaries, but was moved twice due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. TheLouisiana primary was aclosed primary, with the state awarding 60delegates, of which 54 were pledged delegates allocated on the basis of the results of the primary.
Presumptive nominee and former vice presidentJoe Biden won nearly 80% of the vote and all delegates, while senatorBernie Sanders only took little more than 7% and 12 other mainly withdrawn candidates that had formally remained on the ballot made up the rest.
Louisiana was initially planned to be one of four states holding primaries on Saturday, April 4, 2020, the other three beingAlaska,Hawaii andWyoming.[1] On June 20, 2019, governorJohn Bel Edwards had signed a bill consolidating the presidential primary with municipal and ward elections on the same date, shifting the primary date from the first Saturday in March to the first Saturday in April.[2]
On March 13, 2020,secretary of stateKyle Ardoin chose to postpone the state's primaries until June 20 due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[3] On April 14, the primary was further delayed another three weeks to July 11.[4] These delays would have resulted in Louisiana losing half of its delegates, as the primary date was "past a June 9 deadline set by theDemocratic National Committee",[5] but there was no penalty as the2020 Democratic National Convention was rescheduled to August.[6]
Voting was expected to take place throughout the state from 6:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. In the closed primary, candidates had to meet a threshold of 15 percent at the congressional district or statewide level in order to be considered viable. The 54 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 6 congressional districts, and another 7 were allocated to party leaders and elected officials (PLEO delegates), in addition to 12 at-large delegates. Originally planned with 50 delegates, the final number included a 10% bonus of 4 additional delegates on the 32 district and 11 at-large delegates by theDemocratic National Committee.[7][8]
Following the primary, district-level delegates were elected through post-primary congressional district caucuses featuring mail-in balloting. The Democratic state central committee then had to vote on the 12 at-large and 7 pledged PLEO delegates to send to the Democratic National Convention and also conducted this by mail until 8 June. The delegation also included 6 unpledged PLEO delegates: 4 members of theDemocratic National Committee, a sole representative from Congress inCedric Richmond, and the governor John Bel Edwards.[9]
The following individuals appeared on the ballot:[10]
Running
Withdrawn
| Candidate | Votes | % | Delegates[11] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joe Biden | 212,555 | 79.52 | 54 |
| Bernie Sanders(withdrawn) | 19,859 | 7.43 | |
| Elizabeth Warren(withdrawn) | 6,426 | 2.40 | |
| Michael Bennet(withdrawn) | 6,173 | 2.31 | |
| Andrew Yang(withdrawn) | 4,617 | 1.73 | |
| Michael Bloomberg(withdrawn) | 4,312 | 1.61 | |
| Amy Klobuchar(withdrawn) | 2,431 | 0.91 | |
| Pete Buttigieg(withdrawn) | 2,363 | 0.88 | |
| Tulsi Gabbard(withdrawn) | 1,962 | 0.73 | |
| John Delaney(withdrawn) | 1,877 | 0.70 | |
| Tom Steyer(withdrawn) | 902 | 0.34 | |
| Deval Patrick(withdrawn) | 877 | 0.33 | |
| Other candidates | 2,932 | 1.10 | |
| Total | 267,286 | 100% | 54 |