Six states voted for a Democratic Presidential nominee yesterday, choosing between former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders. Missouri was one of those states, but voters in Daviess County hardly noticed.
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Daviess County Results:
Democrats – 423 votes cast
Bernie Sanders 93 (21.9%)
Joseph R. Biden 299 (70.6%)
(All others 10 or less)
Republican – 505 votes cast
Donald J. Trump 486
(Uncommitted & others 8 or less)
Libertarian – 1 vote cast
Jacob Hornberter 1
Green Party – no votes cast
Constitution Party – 2 votes cast
Don J. Grundmann 1
Don Blankenship 0
Uncommitted 1
Low key election
The legal notice describing yesterday’s Primary Election was published in the Jan. 29 edition of this newspaper. At that time 22 Democrat candidates were certified, as were five Republicans, one Libertarian, three Green Party candidates, and two Constitutional candidates, all for U.S. President. Scant attention was given locally to the primary election in the days leading up to yesterday’s vote.
Political realities significantly changed since Jan. 29. A historically diverse Democratic primary field was down to just two white men in their seventies who both have spent decades in Washington. The Republican nomination of incumbent President Donald Trump has never been in question, and third party nominees traditionally gain little traction in national politics.
Biden, 77, was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972 and remained there until his two terms as vice president from 2009 to 2017. Vermont Sen. Sanders, 78, was first elected to the U.S. House in 1990 before making the jump to the U.S. Senate 16 years later.
Yesterday’s Democrat vote focusing on Biden and Sanders was always in the shadows of last week’s Super Tuesday. Still, on the national political stage, yesterday’s Democrat primary was still considered important. A combined 352 delegates were up for grabs in six states — Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington.
Complicated results
Missouri offered 68 of the 352 delegate votes it has. A total of 1,991 delegates are needed to win the nomination. Prior to yesterday’s vote, 1,397 delegates were declared with Biden’s tally ahead of Sanders’ by 91 delegates.
The Missouri primary is an open primary.
In the open primary, candidates must meet a threshold of 15% at the congressional district or statewide level in order to be considered viable. The 68 pledged delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention will be allocated proportionally on the basis of the results of the primary.
Of the 68 pledged delegates, between four and eight are allocated to each of the state’s eight congressional districts and another nine are allocated to party leaders and elected officials (PLEO delegates), in addition to 15 at-large pledged delegates.
Bonus delegates will be allocated as Missouri shares a primary date with numerous other states holding contests the week after Super Tuesday; these numbers do not yet account for these delegates.
Politically speaking, Missouri’s diversity doesn’t make the black vote here as important as in other states despite a sizable number of blacks in St. Louis. Biden also campaigned over the weekend in Kansas City but both candidates canceled some events in order to spend more time in Michigan.
Michigan had the most delegates at stake yesterday, a state which was key to Sen. Sanders’ upset win over Clinton in the last presidential election in 2016.
What happens next
Ward, township, legislative district, and county mass meetings will be held on Thursday, April 9. These meetings will designate congressional, district, and state convention delegates. Congressional district conventions will be held on Thursday, April 30, to choose national convention district delegates.
At the meeting of the Democratic state committee in Jefferson City on Saturday, May 9, the nine pledged PLEO delegates will be voted on, while the 15 pledged at-large delegates will be selected at the subsequent state convention in Columbia on Saturday, June 20.
The 68 pledged delegates Missouri sends to the national convention will be joined by 10 unpledged PLEO delegates (seven members of the Democratic National Committee; two U.S. Representatives; and Dick Gephardt, former majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives).