2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries
selection of the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States in 2016
Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select the 4,051 delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention held July 25–28 and determine the nominee for President in the 2016 United States presidential election. The elections took place within all fifty U.S. states, the District of Columbia, five U.S. territories, and Democrats Abroad and occurred between February 1 and June 14, 2016. This was the first time the Democratic primary had nominated a woman for president.
Six major candidates entered the race starting April 12, 2015, when former Secretary of State and New York Senator Hillary Clinton formally announced her second bid for the presidency. She was followed by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, former Governor of Maryland Martin O'Malley, former Governor of Rhode Island Lincoln Chafee, former Virginia Senator Jim Webb and Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig. A draft movement was started to encourage Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren to seek the presidency. Warren declined to run, as did incumbent Vice President Joe Biden. Webb, Chafee, and Lessig withdrew prior to the February 1, 2016, Iowa caucuses.
Clinton won Iowa by the closest margin in the history of the state's Democratic caucus to date. O'Malley suspended his campaign after a distant third-place finish, leaving Clinton and Sanders as the only two candidates.
The public source identifies “2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries” as selection of the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States in 2016. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Democratic, Party and presidential.
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