Democratic Party Presidential Primaries, 2016 (The More Things Changed)

The 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries and caucuses were a series of electoral contests organized by the Democratic Party to select the 4,051 delegates to the Democratic National Convention held July 25–28 and determine the nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The elections took place within all fifty U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories and occurred between February 1 and June 14, 2016. An extra 716 unpledged delegates (712 votes) or "superdelegates" are appointed by the Party independently of the primaries' electoral process. The convention also approved the Party's platform and vice-presidential nominee.

On July 26, 2016, the Democratic National Convention officially nominated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for President and Secretary of Labor Tom Perez for Vice President.

Background
A total of five major candidates entered the race starting April 12, 2015, when former Secretary of State and Virginia Senator Hillary Clinton formally announced her second bid for the presidency. She was followed by New York Congressman Bernie Sanders, former Governor of Maryland Martin O'Malley, former Governor of Rhode Island Lincoln Chafee, and former Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe. There was some speculation that incumbent Vice President Joe Biden would also enter the race, but he chose not to run. A draft movement was started to encourage Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren to seek the presidency, but Warren repeatedly and emphatically declined to run.

As the result of a distant third-place finish in the South Carolina primary, Beebe dropped out of the race. Following the April 26th primaries, dubbed the "Acela Primary," both O'Malley and Chafee suspended their campaigns, while Sanders officially suspended his campaign on June 9th.

On June 6, 2016, the Associated Press and NBC News stated that Clinton had become the presumptive nominee after reaching the required number of delegates, including both pledged and unpledged delegates (superdelegates), to secure the nomination. In doing so, she had become the first woman to ever be the presumptive nominee of any major political party in the United States. On June 7, Clinton officially secured a majority of pledged delegates after winning in the California and New Jersey primaries. President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren formally endorsed Clinton on June 9, 2016. Sanders confirmed on June 12th that he would vote for Clinton over Donald Trump in the general election and, on June 16th, he formally endorsed Clinton in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

On July 26, 2016, the Democratic National Convention officially nominated Clinton for President and Secretary of Labor Tom Perez for Vice President. On November 8, 2016, Clinton defeated Republican nominee Donald Trump in the general election.

Background
In the weeks following the re-election of President Obama in the 2012 election, media speculation regarding potential candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2016 presidential election began to circulate. The speculation centered on the prospects of Clinton, then-Secretary of State, making a second presidential bid in the 2016 election. Clinton had previously served as a U.S. Senator for Virginia (2001–09) and was the First Lady of the United States (1993–2001). A January 2013 Washington Post–ABC News poll indicated that she had high popularity among the American public. This polling information prompted numerous political pundits and observers to anticipate that Clinton would mount a second presidential bid in 2016, entering the race as the early front-runner for the Democratic nomination. Within the party's liberal left wing came calls for a more progressive candidate to challenge what was perceived by many within this segment as the party's establishment. Warren quickly became a highly touted figure within this movement as well as the object of a draft movement to run in the primaries, despite her repeated denials of interest in doing so. The MoveOn.org campaign 'Run Warren Run' announced that it would disband on June 8, 2015, opting to focus its efforts toward progressive issues. The draft campaign's New Hampshire staffer, Kurt Ehrenberg, had joined Sanders' team and most of the remaining staffers were expected to follow suit. Given the historical tendency for sitting Vice Presidents to seek the presidency in election cycles in which the incumbent President is not a candidate, there was also considerable speculation regarding a potential presidential run by incumbent Vice President Joe Biden, who had previously campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in the election cycles of 1988 and 2008. This speculation was further fueled by Biden's own expressions of interest in a possible run in 2016. However, on October 21, 2015, speaking from a podium in the Rose Garden with his wife and President Obama by his side, Biden announced his decision not to enter the race, as he was still dealing with the loss of his son, Beau, who died weeks earlier at the age of 47.

On May 26, 2015, Sanders officially announced his run as a presidential candidate for the Democratic nomination, after an informal announcement on April 30 and speculation since early 2014. Sanders has previously served as Mayor of Plattsburgh, New York (1983–89), and a U.S. Representative from New York (1993-2001) and (2003-present). Bernie Sanders eventually emerged as the biggest rival to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries, backed by a strong grassroots campaign and a social media following. Martin O'Malley, former Governor of Maryland as well as a former Mayor of Baltimore, made formal steps toward a campaign for the party's nomination in January 2015 with the hiring and retaining of personnel who had served the previous year as political operatives in Iowa – the first presidential nominating state in the primary elections cycle – as staff for his political action committee (PAC). O'Malley had started the "O’ Say Can You See" PAC in 2012 which had, prior to 2015, functioned primarily as fundraising vehicles for various Democratic candidates, including Illinois Governor Dan Hynes and South Carolina Governor Vince Sheheen, as well as for two 2014 ballot measures in Maryland. With the 2015 staffing moves, the PAC ostensibly became a vehicle for O'Malley – who had for several months openly contemplated a presidential bid – to lay the groundwork for a potential campaign for the party's presidential nomination. Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee announced his bid for the nomination on June 3, 2015 on the basis of a peace-waging foreign-policy, digital security and freedom, and the Citizen Equality Act, a proposal that coupled campaign finance reform with other laws aimed at curbing gerrymandering and ensuring voting access. Chafee also relied heavily on social media and grassroots support, in addition to support from Mayday PAC and Honesty PAC.