Bernie Sanders more than doubled his delegate haul with a blowout victory in the Nevada caucuses
- Sen. Bernie Sanders more than doubled his delegate haul from 21 to now 45 pledged delegates with a blowout victory over his rivals in the February 22 Nevada caucuses.
- With 100% of the precincts reporting, Sanders won 40% of the popular vote in the Nevada caucuses and earned 47% of county convention delegates, the metric which determines the winner.
- In Nevada, Sanders won 24 national pledged delegates compared to nine for former VP Joe Biden and three for former Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders more than doubled his delegate haul from 21 to 45 pledged delegates with a blowout victory over his rivals in the February 22 Nevada caucuses.
With 100% of the precincts reporting, Sanders won 40% of the popular vote in the Nevada caucuses, earning him 47% of county convention delegates, the metric converted into national pledged delegates which determines the winner of the state, and ultimately, the nomination.
Here's where the candidates stand after Nevada:
And here's the county convention delegate breakdown for Nevada:
The Democratic nomination isn't decided by who wins the most votes, but by which candidates receive the most delegates - people selected by each campaign from every state or district - to represent them at the Democratic National Convention, taking place July 13-16 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Nevada only accounts for 36, or 0.9% of the delegates allocated throughout the nomination process, but holds disproportionate importance by virtue of being the first state with a significant non-white population to express its voting preferences.
Of Nevada's 36 national pledged delegates:
- 23 are allocated proportionally between the state's four congressional districts. The first district gets five delegates, and the three others are allocated six delegates each.
- 8 at-large and 5 PLEO (party leader and elected official) delegates are decided and allocated based on the statewide popular vote.
In Nevada, Sanders won 24 delegates compared to nine for former VP Joe Biden and three for former Mayor Pete Buttigieg according to estimates from Decision Desk HQ and the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
Before Nevada, Sanders had 12 pledged delegates from Iowa and nine from New Hampshire for a total of 21. Here's how the rest of the field stacked up:
- Buttigieg had 14 delegates from Iowa and nine from New Hampshire for a total of 23.
- Sanders had Biden had six delegates from Iowa and none from New Hampshire.
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren had eight delegates from Iowa and none from New Hampshire.
- Sen. Amy Klobuchar had one delegate from Iowa and six from New Hampshire.
Democrats allocate most of their pledged delegates proportionally by legislative district, in addition to allocating at-large and PLEO (party leader and elected official) delegates based on the statewide vote breakdown.
Most states allocate their delegates by congressional districts, but some, like Texas and New Jersey, use state legislative districts instead.
While delegates are allocated proportionally, in nearly every state the minimum threshold to earn delegates is 15% of the vote. This means candidates must break 15% of the vote either at the district or state level to earn any delegates at all.
Every state has a certain number of delegates to allocate, which is determined by a number of factors including how big the state is, how Democratic they lean, when they vote, and if they vote with their neighbors.
At the convention, a candidate will be nominated when a simple majority of 1,991 out of 3,979 total pledged delegates support a given candidate.
The next contest of the 2020 primary is the South Carolina primary on February 29, which allocates 54 delegates to the convention.
Read more:
RESULTS: Bernie Sanders wins the Nevada caucus, see the full vote count and delegate race here
Bernie Sanders' Nevada win cements his frontrunner status