2020 Michigan Democratic presidential primary

The 2020 Michigan Democratic presidential primary took place on March 10, 2020, as one of several states voting the week after Super Tuesday in the Democratic Party primaries for the 2020 presidential election. The Michigan primary was an open primary,^[1] with the state awarding 147 delegates towards the 2020 Democratic National Convention, of which 125 were pledged delegates allocated on the basis of the results of the primary.

2020 Michigan Democratic presidential primary

← 2016 March 10, 2020 2024 →
← ID MS →
147 delegates (125 pledged, 22 unpledged) to the Democratic National Convention The number of pledged delegates won is determined by the popular vote
Candidate Joe Biden Bernie Sanders Home state Delaware Vermont Delegate count 73 52 Popular vote 840,360 576,926 Percentage 52.93% 36.34%
Results by county Congressional district results Biden   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%

Former vice president Joe Biden decisively won the primary and every county in the state, getting almost 53% of the vote and 73 delegates. Senator Bernie Sanders received around 36% of the vote and 52 delegates, marking a clear regression in support for him from 2016, when he edged out Hillary Clinton by 1.42% and won 73 of the state's 83 counties.^[2] Biden's victory was powered by support from African Americans, older voters, working class voters, and moderate voters.^[3]

Despite losing every county and almost all municipalities, Sanders was still able to win some of the major cities in the state including: Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Grand Rapids, Lansing and Kalamazoo.^[4]

Procedure

Michigan was one of six states (along with Democrats Abroad) which held primaries on March 10, 2020, one week after Super Tuesday.^[5] Voting took place throughout the state from 7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. local time. 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. The 125 pledged delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention were allocated proportionally on the basis of the results of the primary. Of these, between 4 and 9^[6] were allocated to each of the state's 14 congressional districts and another 16 were allocated to party leaders and elected officials (PLEO delegates), in addition to 27 at-large delegates.^[7] The March 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 a March date.^[8]

After district conventions on May 16, 2020, during which district-level delegates were selected, the state central committee meeting subsequently was held on June 13, 2020, to vote on the 27 at-large and 16 pledged PLEO delegates for the Democratic National Convention. The delegation also included 22 unpledged PLEO delegates: 12 members of the Democratic National Committee, 9 members of Congress (both senators and 7 representatives), and the governor Gretchen Whitmer.^[7]

Pledged national convention delegates
Type	Del.	Type	Del.
CD1	5	CD8	6
CD2	5	CD9	7
CD3	5	CD10	4
CD4	4	CD11	7
CD5	6	CD12	7
CD6	5	CD13	7
CD7	5	CD14	9
PLEO	27	At-large	16
Total pledged delegates			125

Candidates

The following people have been included on the list issued by the Michigan Secretary of State for the presidential primary.^[9]

Running

• Joe Biden
• Tulsi Gabbard
• Bernie Sanders

Withdrawn

• Michael Bennet^[a]
• Michael Bloomberg^[b]
• Cory Booker
• Pete Buttigieg^[c]
• Julian Castro
• John Delaney^[d]
• Amy Klobuchar^[c]
• Joe Sestak
• Tom Steyer^[c]
• Elizabeth Warren^[b]
• Marianne Williamson
• Andrew Yang^[a]

There was also an uncommitted option on the ballot.^[10]

Polling

Polling aggregation
Source of poll aggregation	Date updated	Dates polled	Joe Biden	Bernie Sanders	Tulsi Gabbard	Other/ Undecided[e]
270 to Win[11]	Mar 10, 2020	Mar 4–9, 2020	57.0%	32.3%	1.3%	9.4%
RealClear Politics[12]	Mar 10, 2020	Mar 4–9, 2020	55.7%	33.3%	1.3%	9.7%
FiveThirtyEight[13]	Mar 10, 2020	until Mar 9, 2020[f]	55.3%	31.9%	1.2%	11.6%
Average			56.0%	32.5%	1.3%	10.2%
Michigan primary results (March 10, 2020)			52.9%	36.4%	0.6%	10.1%

Tabulation of individual polls of the 2020 Michigan Democratic primary
Poll source	Date(s) administered	Sample size[g]	Margin of error	Joe Biden	Michael Bloomberg	Cory Booker	Pete Buttigieg	Kamala Harris	Amy Klobuchar	Beto O'Rourke	Bernie Sanders	Elizabeth Warren	Andrew Yang	Other	Undecided
Swayable[14]	Mar 9, 2020	3,126 (LV)	± 3.0%	62%	–	–	–	–	–	–	28%	–	–	10%[h]	–
AtlasIntel[15]	Mar 7–9, 2020	528 (LV)	± 4.0%	48%	3%	–	–	–	–	–	40%	1%	–	3%[i]	5%
Data for Progress[16]	Mar 7–9, 2020	320 (LV)	± 5.5%	59%	–	–	–	–	–	–	38%	–	–	2%[j]	–
Mitchell Research & Communications[17]	Mar 8, 2020	602 (LV)	± 4.0%	54%	1%	–	1%	–	1%	–	33%	3%	–	3%[k]	5%
Target Insyght[18]	Mar 8, 2020	600 (LV)	± 4.0%	65%	2%	–	–	–	1%	–	24%	3%	–	3%[l]	1%
Concord Public Opinion Partners/ The Welcome Party[19]	Mar 7–8, 2020	305 (LV)	–	54%	–	–	–	–	–	–	23%	–	–	1%[m]	22%
YouGov/Yahoo News[20]	Mar 6–8, 2020	–(RV)[n]	± 5.8%	54%	–	–	–	–	–	–	42%	–	–	–	–
Monmouth University[21]	Mar 5–8, 2020	411 (LV)	± 4.8%	51%	3%	–	<1%	–	<1%	–	36%	1%	–	7%[o]	2%
ROI Rocket[22]	Mar 4–8, 2020	1,000 (LV)	± 3.1%	55%	–	–	–	–	–	–	45%	–	–	–	–
The Progress Campaign (D)[23]	Mar 3–7, 2020	417 (RV)	± 4.7%	51%	–	–	–	–	–	–	44%	–	–	1%	4%[p]
EPIC-MRA/Detroit Free Press[24]	Mar 4–6, 2020	400 (LV)	± 4.9%	51%	–	–	–	–	–	–	27%	–	–	9%[q]	13%[r]
	Mar 5, 2020	Warren withdraws from the race
	Mar 4, 2020	Bloomberg withdraws from the race
	Mar 2, 2020	Klobuchar withdraws from the race
	Mar 1, 2020	Buttigieg withdraws from the race
GlenGariff Group Inc./Detroit News/WDIV-TV[25]	Feb 28 – Mar 2, 2020	600 (LV)	± 4.0%	29%	11%	–	6%	–	3%	–	23%	7%	–	6%[s]	16%
	Feb 29, 2020	South Carolina primary; Steyer withdraws from the race after close of polls
YouGov/University of Wisconsin-Madison[26]	Feb 11–20, 2020	662 (LV)	–	16%	13%	–	11%	–	8%	–	25%	13%	–	–	14%[t]
	Feb 11, 2020	New Hampshire primary; Yang withdraws from the race after close of polls
Baldwin Wallace University/Oakland University/Ohio Northern University[27]	Jan 8–20, 2020	477 (RV)	–	27%	9.1%	–	6.3%	–	1.9%	–	21.6%	13.6%	3.5%	5.3%[u]	10.6%
	Jan 13, 2020	Booker withdraws from the race
	Dec 3, 2019	Harris withdraws from the race
	Nov 24, 2019	Bloomberg announces his candidacy
Emerson College[28]	Oct 31 – Nov 3, 2019	454	± 4.6%	34%	–	3%	8%	3%	0%	–	28%	19%	2%	3%[v]	–
	Nov 1, 2019	O'Rourke withdraws from the race
Siena Research/New York Times[29]	Oct 13–26, 2019	203	–	30%	–	0%	3%	0%	1%	0%	17%	21%	1%	1%[w]	23%
Kaiser Family Foundation[30]	Sep 23 – Oct 15, 2019	208 (LV)	–	19%	–	1%	7%	2%	1%	1%	15%	25%	1%	0%[x]	27%
Denno Research[31]	Sep 21–24, 2019	217	–	27%	–	1%	4%	4%	1%	1%	12%	23%	1%	4%[y]	23%[z]
Climate Nexus[32]	Jul 14–17, 2019	324 (LV)	–	35%	–	2%	4%	8%	1%	1%	16%	14%	1%	2%[aa]	13%[ab]
Zogby Analytics[33]	May 23–29, 2019	268	± 6.0%	27%	–	1%	9%	7%	1%	4%	18%	8%	2%	5%[ac]	–
Denno Research[34]	May 8–10, 2019	235	–	37%	–	3%	5%	4%	1%	1%	16%	9%	0%	4%[ad]	23%
	Apr 25, 2019	Biden announces his candidacy
	Apr 14, 2019	Buttigieg announces his candidacy
	Mar 14, 2019	O'Rourke announces his candidacy
Emerson College[35]	Mar 7–10, 2019	317	± 5.5%	40%	–	3%	0%	12%	5%	2%	23%	11%	–	4%[ae]	–

Results

Results by county

  Biden—40–50%

  Biden—50–60%

  Biden—60–70%

2020 Michigan Democratic presidential primary^[36]

Candidate	Votes	%	Delegates[37]
Joe Biden	840,360	52.93	73
Bernie Sanders	576,926	36.34	52
Michael Bloomberg (withdrawn)[b]	73,464	4.63
Elizabeth Warren (withdrawn)[b]	26,148	1.65
Pete Buttigieg (withdrawn)[c]	22,462	1.41
Amy Klobuchar (withdrawn)[c]	11,018	0.69
Tulsi Gabbard	9,461	0.60
Andrew Yang (withdrawn)[a]	2,380	0.15
Tom Steyer (withdrawn)[c]	1,732	0.11
Michael Bennet (withdrawn)[a]	1,536	0.10
Cory Booker (withdrawn)	840	0.05
Joe Sestak (withdrawn)	757	0.05
Marianne Williamson (withdrawn)	719	0.05
John Delaney (withdrawn)[d]	464	0.03
Julian Castro (withdrawn)	306	0.02
Uncommitted	19,106	1.20
Total	1,587,679	100%	125

See also

• 2020 Michigan Republican presidential primary

Notes

Additional candidates

1. Candidate withdrew during absentee voting, following the New Hampshire primary.
2. Candidate withdrew during absentee voting, following Super Tuesday.
3. Candidate withdrew during absentee voting, before Super Tuesday.
4. Candidate withdrew in January, shortly after absentee voting had begun.
5. Calculated by taking the difference of 100% and all other candidates combined
6. FiveThirtyEight aggregates polls with a trendline regression of polls rather than a strict average of recent polls.
7. Key:
   A – all adults
   RV – registered voters
   LV – likely voters
   V – unclear
8. Gabbard with 1%; "Other" with 9%
9. Gabbard with 2%; "Other" with 1%
10. Gabbard with 2%
11. Steyer with 1%; "Someone else" with 2%
12. Steyer with 0%; "Other" with 1%; "Uncommitted" with 3%
13. Gabbard with 1%
14. Part of a 1,750 registered voter poll of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin
15. Gabbard with 1%; Steyer with 0%; "Uncommitted" with 6%
16. Listed as "undecided/would not vote"
17. "Other" with 9%
18. "Declined" with 13%
19. Gabbard with 1%; Bennet, Booker, Delaney, Steyer, and Williamson with 0%; Castro and Sestak with no voters; "Refused" with 5%
20. "Not sure/other" with 14%
21. Steyer with 1.7%; Delaney with 1.6%; Bennet with 0.8%; Gabbard with 0.7%; Patrick with 0.5%
22. Gabbard with 1%; Bennet, Bullock, Castro, Delaney, Sestak, and Williamson with 0%; Someone else with 2%
23. Gabbard with 1%; others with 0%
24. Castro and Steyer with no voters; someone else with 0%
25. Bennet with 2%; Gabbard, Delaney with 1%; Bullock, Castro, Messam, Ryan, Sestak, Steyer and Williamson with 0%
26. Labelled as "Other/unsure"
27. Gabbard and Steyer with 1%; Bennet, de Blasio, Bullock, Castro, Delaney, Gillibrand, Gravel, Hickenlooper, Inslee, Messam, Moulton, Ryan, Sestak and Williamson with 0%
28. Labelled as "Other/unsure"
29. Castro, Delaney, Gabbard, Gillibrand, and Hickenlooper with 1%; Inslee with 0%
30. Bennet, Gabbard, Gillibrand, and Swalwell with 1%; Castro, Delaney, Gravel, Hickenlooper, Inslee, Messam, Moulton, Ryan, Williamson, and Yang with 0%
31. Gillibrand and Hickenlooper with 1%; Castro, Gabbard, and Inslee with 0%; others with 3%