The Virginia Democratic primary is one of 14 state contests taking place on Super Tuesday. In addition to the 14 state primaries going on tonight, the American Samoa caucus will also take place. Decision Desk HQ, as well as all major news outlets, have called a Joe Biden victory for the state of Virginia. More information is to yet come on how many delegates each candidate has won.
Heavy will be sharing live results of the Virginia 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 7 p.m. Eastern 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 Virginia 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 Virginia 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 Virginia primary today. The polls closed at 7 p.m. Eastern and all results are expected to be in shortly. Joe Biden has won the Virginia primary.
12:35 a.m. Eastern: As the results stand in Virginia, Biden has 49 delegates, Sanders has 19 delegates and Warren has one delegate. Both Bloomberg and Gabbard do not have any delegates.
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.
11:10 p.m. Eastern: The turnout in Virginia has increased significantly since the last primary, and a total of 11% from 2008.
9:22 p.m. Eastern: As Jake Burns with CBS pointed out on Twitter, the percentages stayed mostly the same in Virginia all night.
9:15 p.m. Eastern: FiveThirtyEight says that turnout in Virginia is 67% greater than in 2016, with 99% of precincts reporting.
8:44 p.m. Eastern: As things stand in Virginia, The New York Times predicts that Bloomberg and Gabbard will not win any delegates, and Warren will win just one.
8:36 p.m. Eastern: With over 93% reporting, Biden is leading with almost 54%. Sanders is in second at 23%.
8:31 p.m. Eastern: FiveThirtyEight says that Warren will probably win at least one delegate in the state since she has about 18% in the 8th Congressional District.
8:16 p.m. Eastern: The Richmond Times-Dispatch shows the difference in votes between Biden and Sanders in different counties and cities. As they highlight, the vote was much closer in Richmond than in Chesterfield.
#VirginiaPrimary: In Richmond, 13,534 voted for Biden vs. 10,759 for Sanders. While in Chesterfield, Biden topped Sanders by nearly 19,000. t.co/ma8T6WlRtN
8:15 p.m. Eastern: Joe Biden says in a video that he “feels good” and is optimistic about the results so far.
“FEELS GOOD.” – @JoeBiden on his wins so far this evening. Virginia is among them.
7:55 p.m. Eastern: Exit polls show that Biden is ahead of Bernie in terms of support from first-time Democratic primary voters.
7:39 p.m. Eastern: Decision Desk tweets that 29% of precincts are reporting, with Biden at 55% of the vote, Sanders at 22%. Bloomberg and Warren have not reached viability yet.
VA Primary Results – 29% of precincts reporting
Biden: 55%
Sanders: 22%
Bloomberg: 9%
Warren: 9%
Total Votes Cast So Far: 361,952
Full results here:
7:24 p.m. Eastern: Sanders is currently firmly in second place in Virginia with just under 23% of votes. Bloomberg and Warren are fighting for third place, but are both struggling to reach viability with 15% of the vote.
7:17 p.m. Eastern: The New York Times’ Nate Cohn explains that because Virginia doesn’t have a lot of advance voting, this Biden surge might be more pronounced than in other states.
It should be noted that Virginia is a state where there’s little advanced voting, so the full-Biden surge can be felt here in a way that it might not be in a state like CO or CA
7:10 p.m. Eastern: Julie Bykowicz with the Wall Street Journal says Bloomberg spent $18 million on ads in Virginia, compared to Biden and others’ $360,000 spending.
7:02 p.m. Eastern: Decision Desk has also called a Joe Biden victory for Virginia.
Decision Desk HQ projects @JoeBiden will win the Virginia Democratic Presidential Primary
7:00 p.m. Eastern: CBS News has projected as soon as polls closed that Joe Biden would win Virginia. NBC News and CNN also projected a Biden win for the state. These early calls were possible because of exit poll results.
6:58 p.m. Eastern: FiveThirtyEight says that it looks very likely that Biden will win Virginia, with their forecast showing him with a 98% chance of finishing first with an average of 43% of the vote.
6:49 p.m. Eastern: Voters have shared that the recent changes in Democratic candidate options have made them rethink who they want to vote for.
Voters in #Virginia tell me the shakeup in the democratic candidates have forced them to rethink who they’re voting for.
It won’t be too long until we know who won the #VirginiaPrimary
#SuperTuesday @wusa9
5:30 p.m. Eastern: FiveThirtyEight contributor Geoffrey Skelley reports that preliminary exit polls for Virginia show that 47% of voters decided who they would vote for either today or in the last few days, which could turn out in Biden’s favor since he has recently surged in that state.
4:30 p.m. Eastern: Virginia election officials have said that there have been no significant issues at the polls so far.
No significant issues at polls so far, Virginia election officials say t.co/gtPtf3G1ps via @rtdnews
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
The last few polls for Virginia has Biden leading the candidates, as reported by 538. A March 1-2 poll by Swayable has Biden at 36%, Sanders and Bloomberg both at 20% and Warren at 11%. Tulsi Gabbard, who is still in the race, is at 0%. An AtlasIntel poll from March 1-2 shows Biden leading with 42%, Sanders at 28%, Bloomberg at 11%, Warren at 10% and Gabbard at 1%.
According to an interview between Caitlin Jewett, a Virginia Tech political science professor who studies primaries, and WDBJ7 out of Virginia, the Democratic nomination will eventually become a battle between two candidates: most likely Bernie Sanders will be the progressive choice and voters will choose a more moderate choice to go against him. Jewett said: “It’s likely that Super Tuesday voters, Virginians included, will help decide who is the moderate frontrunner and whether we can get this race down to a two candidate race or not.”
How the Virginia Primary Works
The Virginia Democratic primary is open, which means that any registered voters can vote even if they’re not registered with a party. Virginia has 124 delegates to award; 99 delegates are pledged delegates and 25 unpledged party leaders and elected officials (PLEOs), which are essentially super delegates. The delegates are awarded proportionally, so it’s not a “winner-take-all” model. Candidates have to meet the 15% threshold to get delegates.
As per The Green Papers, the 99 pledged delegates will be awarded proportionally as follows: 65 district delegates will be given proportionally as per the primary results in each of Virginia’s 11 congressional districts. The other 34 delegates will be pledged to candidates based on the statewide results of the primary: 21 will be at-large pledged delegates and 13 will be pledged PLEOs.
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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