2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Overview

The 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary is the preliminary round in the Democratic party’s candidate selection process for the 2020 general election for the presidency of the United States.

Background

Following the victory of United States President Donald Trump in the 2016 election, voters, political analysts and the media have speculated who would be his democratic challenger him in the 2020 presidential election. The favorites for the primaries included Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Bernie Sanders, Vice President Joe Biden and more.^[1]

Developments

Elizabeth Warren's Announcement

On December 31st, 2018, Senator Elizabeth Warren announced the launching of an exploratory committee for president of the United States. Within 24 hours, the video received more than 730,000 views (shown below).

Tulsi Gabbard's Announcement

On January 11th, 2019, Representative Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii announced her decision to run for president in 2020 (shown below).^[2]

Tulsi Gabbard's Google Lawsuit

On July 25th, 2019, Tulsi Gabbard's campaign sued Google for allegedly infringing on her free speech by suspending her campaign's advertising account for six hours in after the first Democratic debate, at a time when she was the most-searched candidate on Google.^[11] The lawsuit also alleges that Gabbard's campaign emails were incorrectly filed into spam Gmail folders at a disproportionate rate. She is seeking an injunction for $50 million. Google spokesman Jose Castaneda stated Google's automated system flags accounts with unusual activity, and in the case of Gabbard's campaign, they were mistakenly flagged for purchasing many ads after the debate in an attempt to capitalize on the interest in Gabbard.

Julian Castro's Announcement

On January 12th, 2019, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro announced that he would be running for president.^[3] In his speech, he said, "When my grandmother got here almost a hundred years ago, I'm sure she never could have imagined that just two generations later, one of her grandsons would be serving as a member of the United States Congress and the other would be standing with you here today to say these words: I am a candidate for President of the United States of America."

Castro suspended his campaign on January 2nd, 2020.

Kirsten Gillibrand's Announcement

On January 15th, 2019, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced that she would be entering the race for president in 2020. That day, she appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, where she said that was forming an exploratory committee. Within one week of the announcement being posted to YouTube, the video of the announcement received more than 400,000 views (shown below).^[4]

Gillibrand suspended her campaign on August 28th, 2019.

Kamala Harris's Announcement

On January 21st, 2019, Kamala Harris announced that she would be running for president of the United States on Twitter. That day, she posted a video announcing her candidacy on Twitter. The post received more than 58,000 retweets and 192,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below).

I'm running for president. Let's do this together. Join us: https://t.co/9KwgFlgZHA pic.twitter.com/otf2ez7t1p

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 21, 2019

Kamala Harris announced that she would be running for president of the United States on the Good Morning America morning show (announcement below). In her announcement, she said, "This is a moment in time that I feel a sense of responsibility to stand up and fight for the best of who we are, and that fight will always include, as one of the highest priorities, our national security."

Kamala Harris suspended her campaign on December 3rd, 2019.

Beto O'Rourke

Following Texas Representative Beto O'Rourke's loss to Ted Cruz in the 2016 Texas Senate race, many online and in the media speculated that O'Rourke would run for president. Supporters speculated on his run using the hashtag #Beto2020. The hashtag was covered by The Hill,^[5] who pointed to celebrities who tweeted the hashtag including Olivia Wilde and Alyssa Milano.

Beto O'Rourke suspended his campaign on November 1st, 2019.

First Debate

On June 13th, 2019, the Democratic National Committee announced the list of candidates that would participate in the first primary debate.^[8] The list of candidates includes:

Colorado Senator Michael Bennet
Former Vice President Joe Biden
New Jersey Senator Cory Booker
South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg
Former HUD Secretary Julián Castro
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio
Former Maryland Representative John Delaney
Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard
New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
California Senator Kamala Harris
Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper
Washington Governor Jay Inslee
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar
Former Texas Representative Beto O'Rourke
Ohio Representative Tim Ryan
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders
California Representative Eric Swalwell
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren
Writer and spiritual guru Marianne Williamson
Entrepreneur Andrew Yang

That day, NBC News journalist Gary Grumbach tweeted, "Here are the 20 candidates who have qualified for the first Democratic debate, to be held June 26/27 in Miami. They’ll be split up 10 the first night, 10 the second." The tweet received more than 350 likes and 160 retweets in 24 hours (shown below).

Because the field of candidates was so large, the debate has been divided into two groups. On June 14th, New York Times politics reporter tweeted,^[10] "NEWS – the Democratic debate groups / PURPLE: bernie, harris, biden, buttigieg, bennet, williamson, swalwell gillibrand, yang, hickenlooper / ORANGE: booker, warren, beto, klobuchar, delaney, tulsi, castro, ryan, de blasio, Inslee / NBC will now decide which night goes first." The tweet received more than 1,700 likes and 885 retweets in 24 hours (shown below).

Bernie/Warren Female Electability Controversy

The Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren Female Electability Controversy began as the result of a January 2020 report by CNN that Senator Bernie Sanders told Elizabeth Warren that he did not believe a woman could win a general election for president. Sanders later denied the allegations, but Warren stated that the conversation happened. The controversy led to media coverage and a perceived schism between the Warren and Sanders campaigns, who had previously remained largely civil throughout the primaries.

New York Times Dual Klobuchar/Warren Endorsement

On January 19th, 2020, the New York Times posted a dual endorsement for Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren.^[12] The dual endorsement was an unusual move, which the New York Times made based on the rationale it represented both the moderate and progressive wings of the Democratic Party.

The announcement was met with mixed reactions online. On the positive side, Twitter user @PalmerReport^[13] tweeted that each candidate was the most qualified of their respective wings of the party (shown below, left). More critical, Twitter user @esaagar^[14] tweeted the endorsements demonstrated, "more than anything that the NYT represents its upper middle class white subscriber base who don’t care about ideological differences between Warren/Klobuchar and whose entire political identity is summed up in these emojis 💪💁‍♀️."

Others made jokes about the dual endorsement. David Axelrod^[15] joked that if he had to pick one newspaper, "it would be the Washington Post and New York Times." User @Crulge^[16] referenced the "composite image" meme from the beginning of the primary, posting a mashup of Warren and Klobuchar's faces, gaining over 890 retweets and 3,000 likes (shown below, right).

Related Memes

Composite Image of Longshot Male Candidates

On April 22nd, 2019, Twitter user @AndrewPaulJoyce^[6] posted an image they said was a composite image of all the male Democratic candidates polling at less than 1%, gaining over 6,100 retweets and 37,000 likes (shown below).

The image quickly prompted jokes. Several Twitter users made comparisons to other figures in popular culture. For example, Twitter^[9] user @wvdiaspora compared the image to a congressman in the show Parks and Recreation (shown below, left). User @CanSuchThingsBe compared the photo to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (shown below, right). The jokes were covered by Twitter Moments.^[7]

Search Interest

External References