Update : US Democratic Party primaries

July 3, 2019 July 3, 2019

In the run-up to 2020 American Presidential polls, the American Democratic party is currently organizing the primaries to select its Presidential candidate for the polls.

The primaries and caucuses will be a series of electoral contests organized by the Democratic Party to select the approximately 3,768 pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

These delegates then pledge their votes to select the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States elections.

Why 2020 is unique?

  • Republican Party candidate Donald Trump had defeated Democratic party nominee and former first lady of the United States, Hillary Clinton in a keenly watched and fought election in 2016 to become the President of the United States.
  • The tenure of Trump has been divisive and several Americans have turned against him on his various policies on border control, immigration control, views on climate change and his tariff wars.
  • However, the main opposition to Trump’s Republican Party, the Democratic Party is a divided house and several contenders are vying to be the nominee.
  • These include- former Vice-President Joe Biden, Indian origin Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Bernie Sanders and a few more.
  • Currently, Joe Biden and Kamal Harris are leading the opinion polls.

Politics in the USA

The American president is elected via a system of the indirect vote. Voters elect electors to the US Electoral college who then vote for the American President. Since the electors are divided state wise and not population-wise, it is possible for the winning candidate to have fewer votes but more lectors than the losing candidate. This situation occurred in 2016.

Contrary to popular belief, the US does have other political parties apart from the Republican Party and the Democratic party. These are the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, and the Constitution party. However, only the two major parties dominate most of the state legislatures, have governorships and have members on the Senate.

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