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SALT LAKE CITY — Four Democratic candidates have suspended their campaigns or dropped out of the presidential race since Saturday. In the wake of Super Tuesday, former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders have secured the lion’s share of delegates so far in the quest for the party’s nomination.
So what happens if delegates in your state are going toward someone no longer in the race?
To answer that question, let’s focus on Utah. State Democratic leaders still haven't announced a preliminary delegate count from Tuesday’s primary, and that could come as early as Thursday, according to Utah Democratic Party Chair Jeff Merchant.
Even though many news outlets have declared Sanders the winner, any candidate meeting the 15% threshold as a viable candidate will receive pledged delegates. A candidate needs 1,991 of these delegates to win the nomination during the first round of the party’s national convention in July.
As of Wednesday afternoon, four Democratic candidates have reached that 15% mark in Utah’s primary. Those are Sanders, Biden, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Should that stand after all of the votes are counted, all four would receive at least one delegate.
But Bloomberg announced earlier Wednesday he was dropping out of the race and endorsing Biden instead; NBC News reported Wednesday that Warren is assessing her campaign after Biden and Sanders won all 14 states in Super Tuesday elections, but she’s still in the race.
Related:
Bloomberg quits the 2020 presidential race, endorses Biden
Billionaire Mike Bloomberg ended his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden.Utah has 29 total delegates tied into Tuesday’s election. Of those 29, 19 are decided by results within the state’s four congressional districts; the other 10 are awarded from the state as a whole. Utah has six at-large delegates making up the statewide 10 delegates, along with four party leaders and elected officials (PLEO).
"If a candidate who has withdrawn gets delegates based on the district-level allocation, they hold onto those delegates even if they withdraw," Merchant explained. "If you are a statewide, at-large or PLEO delegate and you drop out, then the candidate loses those delegates and they go to whomever else gets those delegates based on a reallocation on a statewide level."
If the current results were final, Sanders would receive three at-large delegates and Biden, Warren and Bloomberg would all get one. However, since Bloomberg dropped out, his delegate would go toward another candidate still actively in the race. If Bloomberg received more than 15% in one of the state’s congressional districts, he would still hold onto that delegate heading into July.
That said, Democratic National Party officials told The Washington Post on Tuesday that delegates will be reallocated only to people still in the race at the time of its convention, which means that delegate could vote for whomever they want instead of having to vote for the candidate they were awarded to.
If none of the remaining candidates receive that magical 1,991 pledged delegate number, the party moves to a second round of voting at its convention, where voting becomes more expansive anyway.
"In the second round of voting, everyone’s a free agent. So, you’re not bound to anyone, and all of the superdelegates also get to begin voting," Merchant said. "They all have the ability to vote for whichever candidate they think would best represent the party."
A candidate needs to receive 2,376 total delegates in second or any subsequent rounds to receive the nomination. It’s a complex process, but that’s what happens to a delegate awarded to a candidate who quits running.
