Pledged nationalconvention delegates Type CD1 5 CD2 6 CD3 6 CD4 6 5 At-large 8 Total pledged delegates 36 The 2020 Nevada Democratic presidential caucuses took place on February 22, 2020, with early voting on February 14–18, and was the third nominating contest in the Democratic Party primaries for the 2020 presidential election, following the New Hampshire primary the week before. The Nevada caucuses were a closed caucus, meaning that only registered Democrats could vote in this caucus. The state awarded 49 delegates towards the national convention, of which 36 were pledged delegates allocated on the basis of the results of the caucuses.
Senator Bernie Sanders won the caucuses in a landslide, with 46.8% of county convention delegates (CCDs) and 40.5% of the final popular vote alignment, with former vice president Joe Biden coming in second. Former mayor Pete Buttigieg and senator Elizabeth Warren failed to cross the 15% threshold of county convention delegates (CCDs) required to earn statewide delegates, although Buttigieg earned three delegates because he received at least 15% of CCDs in at least one congressional district despite falling short of the statewide threshold. This was the third presidential nominating contest in a row that Sanders topped the popular vote in, after the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. Of the 104,883 votes, more than 70,000 were cast early with ranked choice voting ballots.
Procedure
Caucus votes were initially slated to be counted on the Shadow app that caused significant problems during the counting of 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses. As a consequence of those difficulties, the caucuses instead used Google Forms running on 2,000 iPads to send in results. Some volunteers believed there was a lack of training on the iPads, which could result in malfunctions. Early voting for the caucuses took place from February 15 to 18. In addition to Google Forms, early voters filled out a paper ballot that required them to rank candidates according to preference. Early voting ballots were only counted if voters ranked at least three candidates, and were transmitted to voter's home precincts to be counted alongside election day votes.
Precinct caucuses were held starting at 10:00 a.m. local time (PST), with voting starting at noon on February 22. In the closed caucuses, candidates had to meet a 15% viability threshold within an individual precinct in order to be considered viable and 15% at the congressional district or statewide level to win delegates, with supporters of non-viable candidates at precinct caucuses then allowed to support one of the remaining viable candidates. Of the 36 pledged delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention, 23 were allocated on the basis of the district results made up of the precinct caucuses, with between 5 and 6 allocated to each of the state's four congressional districts. In the same step the precinct caucuses also elected delegates to county conventions based on the results of the vote in each precinct. Of the remaining 13 pledged delegates, 5 were allocated to party leaders and elected officials (PLEO delegates) in addition to 8 at-large delegates, and these were distributed proportionally based on the number of county delegates for presidential contenders.
The county conventions were planned for April 18, 2020, to choose delegates for the state convention. On May 30, 2020, the state convention met to vote on the 36 pledged delegates for the Democratic National Convention. The delegation also included 13 unpledged PLEO delegates: 6 members of the Democratic National Committee, 5 members of Congress (both senators and 3 representatives), the governor Steve Sisolak, and former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. This meant that presumptive nominee Joe Biden together with the delegates he received from Buttigieg was able to get 25 votes on the national convention, one more than Sanders' 24.
On March 20, 2019, the Nevada Democratic Party had released its 2020 delegate selection plan, introducing four days for early voting from February 15 to 18, 2020, and, like the Iowa caucuses, "virtual caucuses" on February 16 and 17 to allow those unable to physically attend to vote in addition to releasing raw vote totals. In both cases, caucusgoers' ranked presidential preferences would be sent to their precinct and counted on the day of the physical caucus, but in late August 2019, the Democratic National Committee ordered both the Iowa and Nevada Democratic state parties to scrap their plans for "virtual caucuses" because of security concerns. After county conventions following the previous caucuses had left open the risk of a candidate winning a majority of delegates at the state conventions despite trailing among district delegates, even all unpledged delegates had to be allocated on the basis of the results of the precinct caucuses on February 22.
Candidates In order to get on the "caucus preference card" (ballot), candidates had to file with the State committee and pay a $2,500 fee by New Year's Day 2020. The following candidates qualified:
Joe Biden Pete Buttigieg Tulsi Gabbard Amy Klobuchar Bernie Sanders Tom Steyer Elizabeth Warren Michael Bennet (withdrawn) Deval Patrick (withdrawn) Andrew Yang (withdrawn)
Cory Booker, John Delaney and Marianne Williamson were accepted onto the ballot, but withdrew soon enough that they did not appear on it. Although Delaney had not been on the ballot, he received one vote in the first caucus alignment. There was also an uncommitted option on the ballot.
Campaign Twenty-three candidates visited the state during 2019. The largest event of that year was the November 17 "First in the West" "cattle call", which was attended by fourteen candidates.
For a second caucus in a row, the Culinary Workers Union declined to endorse a candidate. This came after it circulated a flyer among members criticizing Sanders and Warren's support for single-payer healthcare, which it argued would leave members with worse benefits. The Las Vegas Sun endorsed both Klobuchar and Biden, saying that they think nominating Sanders "guarantees a Trump second term."
The following was spent on television advertising: Tom Steyer: $13.55 million Bernie Sanders: $1.54 million Elizabeth Warren: $1.51 million Pete Buttigieg: $1.26 million Joe Biden: $1.16 million Amy Klobuchar: $838,740
Even though the Republican caucus had been canceled, President Trump held several campaign events in Nevada.
February 14–18 primary With encouragement from the remaining campaigns, the five-day early voting began on February 14. Hundreds of polling places were open throughout the state, with candidate events taking place near to them. Turnout was large, with close to 12,000 showing up the first day and greater numbers over the weekend, February 15–16. It was estimated that up to 60% of all participants would vote early and 77,000 voters took the opportunity to do so. As approximately 84,000 voters voted in the caucus in 2016, and approximately 110,000 voters voted in 2008, this put the trajectory for voter turn out in the 2020 caucus above 2016 and near 2008.
Early voters who did not fill out at least a first-choice, second-choice and third-choice ballot oval would not have their votes counted, creating concerns of lost votes, but this rule ultimately affected few voters.
February 19–22 caucus With the early voting phase over, the ninth official debate between the candidates on the ballot took place on February 19. Steyer, who was in double digits in several polls in Nevada, did not qualify for the debate, while Michael Bloomberg, who was not on the ballot, did.
The doors opened for the caucus at 9 AM PST and the caucus itself an hour later. There was controversy about the NDAs that the people working at the caucuses were made to sign. Nevada State Democratic Party Chairman William McCurdy stated that signing the non-disclosure agreements was voluntary, but this was disputed. Several people quit rather than doing so.
Polling Polling aggregation Source of poll aggregation Dateupdated Datespolled BernieSanders JoeBiden PeteButtigieg ElizabethWarren TomSteyer AmyKlobuchar Others Undecided270 to Win270 to Win Feb 21, 2020 Feb 14–21, 2020 30.0% 16.7% 14.0% 13.7% 9.7% 9.7% 1.3% 4.9%RealClear PoliticsRealClear Politics Feb 21, 2020 Feb 19–21, 2020 32.5% 16.0% 16.0% 14.0% 9.0% 9.5% 2.0% 1.0%FiveThirtyEightFiveThirtyEight Feb 21, 2020 until Feb 21, 2020 30.5% 14.4% 15.3% 11.8% 10.2% 8.9% 11.0% – Average 31.0% 15.7% 15.1% 13.2% 9.6% 9.4% 4.7% 2.0% Nevada caucus results, first alignment (February 22, 2020) 34.0% 17.6% 15.4% 12.8% 9.1% 9.6% 1.5% –
Tabulation of individual polls of the 2020 Nevada Democratic Caucus Poll source Date(s)administered Samplesize Margin JoeBiden CoryBooker PeteButtigieg KamalaHarris AmyKlobuchar BetoO'Rourke BernieSanders TomSteyer ElizabethWarren AndrewYang Other Undecided Nevada caucuses (first alignment vote) Feb 22, 2020 – –17.6% –15.4% –9.6% –34%9.1%12.8%0.6%1% –Data for ProgressData for Progress Feb 19–21, 2020 1010 (LV) ± 2.8% 16% – 15% – 8% – 35% 8% 16% – 2% –AtlasIntelAtlasIntel Feb 19–21, 2020 517 (LV) ± 4.0% 11% – 14% – 5% – 38% 11% 9% – 7% 5%Emerson CollegeEmerson College Feb 19–20, 2020 425 (LV) ± 4.7% 16% – 17% – 11% – 30% 10% 12% – 4% – Feb 15–18, 2020 Early voting occurred in the Nevada caucusesPoint Blank PoliticalPoint Blank Political Feb 13–15, 2020 256 (LV) ± 5.6% 14.3% – 12.6% – 15.6% – 13%18.6% 7.1% – 1.7% 17.1%Beacon Research/Tom SteyerBeacon Research/Tom Steyer Feb 12–15, 2020 600 (LV) – 19% – 13% – 7% – 24% 18% 10% – 4% 6%Data for ProgressData for Progress Feb 12–15, 2020 766 (LV) ± 3.4% 14% – 15% – 9% – 35% 10% 16% – 2% –WPA Intelligence/Las Vegas Review-Journal/AARP NevadaWPA Intelligence/Las Vegas Review-Journal/AARP Nevada Feb 11–13, 2020 413 (LV) ± 4.8% 18% – 10% – 10% – 25% 11% 13% – 5% 8% Feb 11, 2020 New Hampshire primary; Yang withdraws from the race after close of polls Jan 13, 2020 Booker withdraws from the raceSuffolk University/USA TodaySuffolk University/USA Today Jan 8–11, 2020 500 (LV) ± 4.4% 19% 2% 8% – 4% – 18% 8% 11% 4% 4% 22% https://www.yang2020.com/wp-content/uploads/Myers-Research-Nevada.pdf Jan 5–8, 2020 635 ± 4.0% 23% 3% 6% – 2% – 17% 12% 12% 4% 13% 6% Dec 3, 2019 Harris withdraws from the raceYouGov/CBS NewsYouGov/CBS News Nov 6–13, 2019 708 (RV) ± 4.7% 33% 2% 9% 4% 2% – 23% 2% 21% 1% 2% –Fox NewsFox News Nov 10–13, 2019 627 ± 4.0% 24% 1% 8% 4% 2% – 18% 5% 18% 3% 4% 10%Emerson PollingEmerson Polling Oct 31 – Nov 2, 2019 451 (LV) ± 4.6% 30% 1% 5% 5% 1% – 19% 3% 22% 5% 10% –Mellman Group/The Nevada IndependentMellman Group/The Nevada Independent Oct 28 – Nov 2, 2019 600 (LV) ± 4.0% 29% 1% 7% 3% 3% 0% 19% 4% 19% 3% 3% 9% Nov 1, 2019 O'Rourke withdraws from the raceCNN/SSRSCNN/SSRS Sep 22–26, 2019 324 (LV) ± 7.1% 22% 2% 4% 5% 1% 0% 22% 4% 18% 3% 3% 13%Suffolk University/USA TodaySuffolk University/USA Today Sep 19–23, 2019 500 (LV) – 23% 2% 3% 4% 0% 1% 14% 3% 19% 3% 4% 21%YouGov/CBS NewsYouGov/CBS News 563 (LV) ± 4.9% 27% 1% 4% 6% 0% 3% 29% 2% 18% 1% 9% –Gravis MarketingGravis Marketing Aug 14–16, 2019 382 (RV) ± 5.0% 25% 3% 5% 9% 2% 0% 10% 6% 15% 2% 13% 9%Change ResearchChange Research Aug 2–8, 2019 439 (LV) ± 4.7% 26% 0% 7% 10% 1% 2% 22% 3% 23% 1% 5% –Morning ConsultMorning Consult Jul 1–21, 2019 749 (RV) ± 4.0% 29% 3% 6% 11% 1% 3% 23% 1% 12% 3% 10% – Jul 9, 2019 Steyer announces his candidacyMonmouth UniversityMonmouth University Jun 6–11, 2019 370 (LV) ± 5.1% 36% 2% 7% 6% 1% 2% 13% – 19% 2% 3% 8%Change ResearchChange Research May 9–12, 2019 389 (LV) – 29% 2% 13% 11% 1% 4% 24% – 12% 1% 4% – Apr 25, 2019 Biden announces his candidacy Apr 14, 2019 Buttigieg announces his candidacyEmerson CollegeEmerson College Mar 28–30, 2019 310 (LV) ± 5.5% 26% 2% 5% 9% 2% 10% 23% – 10% 3% 9% –
Results Bernie Sanders won the Nevada caucuses, with Joe Biden coming in second and Pete Buttigieg in third.