Getty Clockwise from top left: Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard.
The Colorado Democratic primary is one of 14 state primaries taking place on Super Tuesday. In addition to the 14 state contests going on tonight, the American Samoa caucus will also be taking place. Decision Desk HQ has called a Bernie Sanders victory for the state of Colorado. More information is to yet come on how many delegates each candidate has won.
Heavy will be sharing live results of the Colorado primary as the votes come in as well as key updates about what’s happening in the state on Super Tuesday. The polls will be closing at 9 p.m. Eastern (7 p.m. Mountain) and results are expected to start coming in within the hour.
Democratic Primary Results – Updated Live
Heavy is partnered with Decision Desk and will be showing the live results of the Colorado Democratic primary as they are made official. Below is a live results table showing the votes and percentages for each candidate as well as a map of results by county. Simply choose Colorado in the list of states to see the results coming in. Go here if you don’t see the results table below.
Below are some live updates about what’s happening in the Colorado primary today. The polls closed at 9 p.m. Eastern time (7 p.m. Mountain) and results are expected to start coming in within an hour. Bernie Sanders won the state of Colorado, with Bloomberg, Biden and Warren all picking up delegates as well.
12:32 a.m. Eastern: Because not all results have come in yet, it’s not yet possible to say how many delegates each candidate received. Heavy has a Decision Desk delegate tracker for the whole Democratic race here.
11:43 p.m. Eastern: With over 96% of precincts reporting, Sanders has almost 36% of the vote. Biden and Bloomberg are virtually tied at 22% and Warren has just over 17%.
11:31 p.m. Eastern: Voters in Colorado are expressing their happiness that the state is now a primary state instead of a caucus.
Although it’s a big night for Democrats, folks on either side of the political aisle are excited about the #ColoradoPrimary coming back after over two decades. t.co/K12bQO4GW7
11:14 p.m. Eastern: Results can take a bit longer to all come in when there are a lot of mail-in ballots to be counted. Although the state was called for Bernie Sanders, the number of delegates to be allocated to each candidate is yet to be determined.
10:51 p.m. Eastern: Political analyst Jason Johnson points out that Sanders hasn’t performed as well as in 2016. In 2016, Sanders got 59% in Colorado, whereas in 2020 he has 36% so far.
Sanders 2016 2020
MN 61% 30%
AK 29% 20.8%
OK 51.9% 25.1%
VA 35.2% 23.1%
TN 32.4% 24,5%
CO 59% 36%
Across the board, Sanders has performed below his primary polls in 2016. #Supertuesday
10:15 p.m. Eastern: Sanders has done really well in Boulder County, where the University of Colorado campus is located, with over 40% of the vote so far.
10:11 p.m. Eastern: Bernie Sanders supporters and volunteers celebrated in Colorado when his projected win was announced.
Photo from @kmscott: @BernieSanders campaign volunteer Drew Romano, 25, from Boulder erupts in cheers inside the Colorado HQ as Sanders is reported to have won the #ColoradoPrimary #COpolitics
10:05 p.m. Eastern: The New York Times has 79% reporting and shows Bernie Sanders leading with just over 36% of the vote. Bloomberg is second with 23%.
9:37 p.m. Eastern: With only about 1% of precincts reporting, Bernie is clearly in the lead in Colorado, with over 36%. However, because Bloomberg, Biden and Warren all have over 15% so far, he may end up with fewer delegates than he would have liked.
9:35 p.m. Eastern: NBC News has now also called Colorado for Bernie Sanders, 35 minutes after polls closed.
BREAKING: Sen. Bernie Sanders wins Colorado Democratic Primary, NBC News projects. t.co/xeF4T9dWZJ
9:26 p.m. Eastern: Dave Wasserman from NBC News reports that both Bloomberg and Biden seem to be above the 15% viability threshold in Colorado. Sanders remains in the lead with over 36%.
CO update: Biden is safely above 15% viability in the first few big Denver burbs to report votes (Adams, Douglas).
But the better news for Biden is that Bloomberg looks safely above 15% viability, limiting Sanders’s delegate haul.
9:12 p.m. Eastern: Over in the Republican primary in Colorado, ABC News has projected a victory for Donald Trump.
BREAKING: ABC News projects President Donald Trump will win the Republican primary in Colorado. #SuperTuesday
Live updates: t.co/BlzF6iKrvf
9:10 p.m. Eastern: Decision Desk has called Colorado for Sanders.
Decision Desk HQ projects @BernieSanders Wins The Colorado Democratic Presidential Primary (corrects earlier tweet)
9:01 p.m. Eastern: AP is calling Colorado for Bernie Sanders.
Bernie Sanders wins the Colorado Democratic presidential primary, his second victory on a Super Tuesday that has seen Joe Biden win a trio of Southern states. t.co/f3y6VnAzO8
8:50 p.m. Eastern: A note about the results in Colorado: because of the reporting system, votes for Buttigieg and Klobuchar will not be displayed, so there could be a big discrepancy between the ballots cast and the candidate votes.
8:23 p.m. Eastern: Many Colorado voters have been tweeting about how easy it is to vote in the state, with many drive-thru and drop-off locations available.
Shout out to the state of Colorado who makes voting SUPER easy.
We were able to register in a matter of minutes and we can drop off our ballot pretty much anywhere.
In fact, the Men’s Wearhouse across the road has a drop off mailbox.😂
7:58 p.m. Eastern: Photos from downtown Denver show lots of people lining up to vote in the primary.
Lots of people lining up to vote at #DenverCO election HQ in downtown Denver.
7:50 p.m. Eastern: An NBC News exit poll showed that Colorado Democrats view Warren most favorably of all candidates (over 7 in 10) and Bloomberg as the least favorable.
March 2: There are now much fewer candidates in the race than a few days ago for the South Carolina primary, with Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Tom Steyer all suspending their campaigns. Buttigieg and Klobuchar both endorsed Joe Biden. Super Tuesday will be the first time that Mike Bloomberg will be appearing on the ballot.
Polling Updates
According to 538, the last two polls before Colorado’s primary on Super Tuesday show Bernie Sanders leading in the state. A March 1-2 poll from Swayable shows Sanders in the lead with 29%, Joe Biden with 20%, Bloomberg with 19% and Warren with 12%. Tulsi Gabbard, the fifth Democrat still in the race, has 0%. It’s worth noting that this poll was concluded before Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar suspended their campaigns, which is why they were at 12% and 4% respectively. Tom Steyer also suspended his campaign.
A February 28-March 2 poll from Data for Progress had Sanders leading with 32% followed by Warren at 21%, Biden at 18%, Bloomberg at 16% and Tulsi Gabbard with 2%.
How the Colorado Primary Works
For the first time in two decades, the Colorado vote for presidential candidates will be a primary and not a caucus. The Colorado primary is semi-closed. According to Ballotpedia, this means that voters who were previously unaffiliated can participate in the political primary that they choose, but voters who are affiliated with a party can only vote in that political party’s primary.
The Green Papers explain that Colorado has 80 delegates up for grabs, and 67 of those are pledged delegates who are allocated proportionally based on the primary’s results. Of those 67, 23 delegates are pledged based on the results of the statewide vote —14 are at-large National Convention delegates and 9 are pledged party leaders and elected officials (PLEOs), which are essentially superdelegates. The candidates must meet the 15% threshold in the congressional district level or statewide level to be viable.
The 2020 Democratic National Convention (DNC) will be taking place July 13-16. According to the Ballotpedia breakdown, there will be 4,750 delegates, 3,979 of whom will be pledged and 771 will be automatic delegates, known as superdelegates. The important number for the DNC is 1,991 — a candidate has to get support from a majority of pledged delegates on the first ballot to win the nomination. Superdelegates aren’t allowed to vote on the first ballot. If no candidate wins a majority of the pledged delegates, it’s a contested convention and a second ballot takes place which includes all delegates, including superdelegates. At that point, a candidate will need to get a majority of all delegates to win, so more than 2,375 votes.
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