From January 3 to June 3, 2008, voters of the Democratic Party chose their nominee for president in the 2008 United States presidential election. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois was selected as the nominee, becoming the first African American to secure the presidential nomination of any major political party in the United States. Due to a close race between Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, the contest remained competitive for longer than expected; neither candidate received enough pledged delegates from state primaries and caucuses to achieve a majority, without endorsements from unpledged delegates (superdelegates).
The presidential primaries actually consisted of both primary elections and caucuses, depending upon what the individual state chose. The goal of the process was to elect the majority of the 4,233 delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, which was held from Monday, August 25, through Thursday, August 28, 2008, in Denver, Colorado. To secure the nomination, a candidate needed to receive at least 2,117 votes at the convention—or a simple majority of the 4,233 delegate votes. This total included half-votes from American Samoa, Guam, and the United States Virgin Islands, in addition to Democrats Abroad, as well as superdelegates—party leaders and elected officials who were not chosen through a primary or caucus. Obama received enough superdelegate endorsements on June 3 to claim that he had secured the simple majority of delegates necessary to win the nomination, before Clinton conceded the nomination four days later. Obama was nominated on the first ballot at the August convention. He went on to win the general election, and became the 44th president of the United States on January 20, 2009. Clinton went on to serve as Obama's Secretary of State for his first term as president, and the Democratic nominee for president in 2016, losing to Donald Trump. These primaries included the nominees for the next three elections: Obama again in 2012, Clinton in 2016, and Biden in 2020.__TOC__ Candidates and results
Notes for the following table: Delegate counts: The pledged delegate estimates come from the sum of the Current estimate columns for the states listed in the Chronicle section later in this article The source for superdelegate estimates is the 2008 Democratic Convention Watch blog. Superdelegate endorsements were frozen on June 7, the date of Clinton's concession speech. Ordering: The candidates are ordered by pledged delegate count and then alphabetically by last name To re-sort this table, click on the double-arrow symbol () at the top of a column
Nominee CandidateMost recent office heldat the end of the primariesHome State Pledged delegatevote estimateThe pledged delegate estimates come from the sum of the states listed in the Chronicle section in this article. Superdelegatevote estimate Total delegatevote estimate Campaign status Running mateBarack ObamaU.S. Senator fromIllinois(2005–2008)1,794½51%47866%2,272½53% (Campaign)Secured nomination: June 3, 2008 Joe Biden
Withdrew during the primaries CandidateMost recent office heldat the end of the primariesHome State Pledged delegatevote estimate Superdelegatevote estimate Total delegatevote estimate Campaign statusClinton, HillaryHillary ClintonU.S. Senator from New York(2001–2009)1,731½49%246½34%1,97846%(Campaign)(Endorsed Obama, later became Secretary of State)Edwards, JohnJohn Edwards U.S. Senator from North Carolina (1999–2005)14½<1%0 14½1%(Campaign)Withdrew: January 30, 2008(Endorsed Obama)Biden, JoeJoe BidenU.S. Senator from Delaware(1973–2009)000(Campaign)Withdrew: January 3, 2008(Endorsed Obama, who later chose Biden as his vice presidential running mate)Richardson, BillBill RichardsonGovernor of New Mexico(2003–2011)000(Campaign)Withdrew: January 10, 2008(Endorsed Obama)Dodd, ChristopherChris DoddU.S. Senator from Connecticut(1981–2011)000(Campaign)Withdrew: January 3, 2008(Endorsed Obama)Gravel, MikeMike GravelU.S. Senator from Alaska(1969–1981)000(Campaign)Withdrew: March 26, 2008(Endorsed Jesse Johnson for Green nomination)Kucinich, DennisDennis KucinichU.S. Representative for Ohio's 10th(1997–2013)000(Campaign)Withdrew: January 23, 2008(Endorsed Obama)
Withdrew before the primaries
CandidateMost recent office heldat the end of the primariesHome State Pledged delegatevote estimate Superdelegatevote estimate Total delegatevote estimate Campaign statusVilsack, TomTom Vilsack Governor of Iowa(1999–2007)000(Campaign)Withdrew: February 23, 2007(Endorsed Clinton)
Formed exploratory committee but did not run
Declined to run
Delegate system Delegates are the people who decided the nomination at the Democratic National Convention. Delegates from fifty US states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico had a single vote each, while delegates from American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, Guam and Democrats Abroad, as well as the states of Florida and Michigan, which contravened the schedule, had half a vote each. Thus, the total number of delegates was slightly higher than the total number of available delegate votes (4,049). This is now updated to 4,233 with FL-MI delegations.
Pledged delegates In the modern presidential primary system, candidates for the nomination campaign in a series of primary elections and caucus events. For the Democratic Party, the results from these primaries and caucuses determine the number of pledged delegates committed to vote for each candidate at the Democratic National Convention, intended to reflect the will of the voters. These delegates are not legally bound to vote for the candidate they represent, but candidates may remove delegates whom they feel may be disloyal, and delegates generally vote as pledged. Under the party's Delegate Selection Rules for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, delegates were allocated to each of the fifty U.S. states according to two main criteria: the proportion of votes each state had given to the Democratic candidate in the previous three presidential elections, and the percentage of votes each state had in the United States Electoral College. In addition, fixed numbers of delegates were allocated to the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Democrats Abroad. In 2008, a total of 3,253 pledged delegate votes would be awarded through the primaries and caucuses.
Superdelegates
Superdelegate votes are given equal weight to the votes of pledged delegates. Superdelegates are members of the United States House of Representatives and Senate, state and territorial governors, members of the Democratic National Committee, distinguished party leaders, and add-on delegates selected by the state parties. They represented almost 20 percent of the total 4,233 delegates.
The number and composition of superdelegates had the potential to change right up to the start of the Democratic National Convention. The total number of superdelegate votes at the start of the primary season in October 2007 stood at 850. Various events such as deaths, elections, and disqualifications may alter the final number of superdelegates voting in the primary.
While officially uncommitted until the convention, the superdelegates may publicly endorse or commit to a candidate at any time. The presidential candidates compete heavily for these commitments. News organizations survey the superdelegates periodically throughout the election season and try to calculate how many have committed to each of the candidates. The media often include these superdelegate estimates in their reporting on the race, leading to differing delegate counts from various news sources.
Delegate selection rules
Under the Democratic Party's Delegate Selection Rules for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, delegates are awarded by proportional representation, with a minimum 15 percent threshold required to receive delegates. Each state party is required to publish its own state level delegate selection plan, indicating how the state will select delegates at the congressional and statewide level, how the delegation will implement the party's affirmative action policy, and how the delegation will ensure an equal balance between women and men. Those plans were adopted at state conventions and forwarded to the national party in mid-2007.
In most state caucuses, the viability threshold must be met at each level in the process, from the precinct level upwards. This puts enormous pressure on the remaining candidates to gain the support of voters whose chosen candidates fall below the 15 percent mark. See also: The focus on viability is designed to weed out small, divisive factions from gaining delegates to disrupt the national convention. However, this can result in candidates gaining viability in some precincts but not in others, and a complicated "caucus math" is required to allocate delegates to the county and state conventions for each precinct. In the primaries, the viability threshold is set based on statewide and congressional district votes. At-large and PLEO (Party Leaders and Elected Officials) delegates are allocated based on statewide votes, while district-level delegates are allocated by district votes.
Opinion polling
Campaign
Notes for the tables in this section: Delegate votes to the convention column: The source for delegation sizes is the Democratic National Committee's official Call for the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Specific sources are present for Florida and Michigan. Very recent changes not already in the official source are indicated by the footnotes. Pledged delegate votes column: The source is each state's primary or caucus article. Click on the specific election link to see the sources used in those articles. The candidate with the highest pledged delegate vote is highlighted. In some cases, this may be different from the winner of the popular vote.
Early campaigning
The earliest significant candidate to launch their candidacy was Mike Gravel in April 2006. However, for the most part, the race for the 2008 presidential nomination did not truly begin in earnest until after the 2006 midterm elections. Between November 2006 and February 2007, nine major candidates opened their campaigns: Evan Bayh as an exploratory committee, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, and Tom Vilsack. Potential candidates John Kerry, Al Gore, Russ Feingold, Tom Daschle, Wesley Clark, Sam Nunn, Mark Warner, and Al Sharpton reportedly considered running but ultimately declined to seek the nomination. Bayh said he would not seek the nomination on December 16, 2006, and withdrew from the race. Soon Vilsack dropped out in February 2007.
During the first three months of 2007, Clinton and Obama raised over $20 million each, while Edwards raised more than $12 million."", The Washington Post, 2007. The three candidates quickly became the frontrunners for the nomination, a status they held all the way through the end of 2007.