Biden Projected to Win Massachusetts, Maine Democrat Primaries

President Joe Biden speaks during the annual House Democrats 2024 Issues Conference on Feb
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Nick Gilbertson

President Joe Biden is projected to win the Democrat primaries in both Massachusetts and Maine, according to Decision Desk HQ.

Decision Desk HQ called both races for Biden right at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, when polls closed in the states and before results came in.

Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), who entered the presidential race late, and Marianne Williamson were also on the Massachusetts ballot. Like Michigan last week, where Democrat primary ballots featured an “uncommitted” option, the New York Times noted that primary ballots in Massachusetts had a “no preference” option.

Notably, Michigan’s “uncommitted” choice received 13.2 percent of the vote share, a significant embarrassment to Biden. That followed a campaign called “Listen to Michigan” launched several weeks earlier urging voters to select the uncommitted option to “pressure Biden to demand a permanent ceasefire in Gaza,” as Newsweek noted. It remains to be seen how many votes “no preference” will receive.

The Massachusetts Democrat primary has 92 delegates of the states 116 total delegates in play, WBZ News noted. Democrat delegates will be awarded based on the vote proportion they receive, but one only qualifies for delegates if they break the 15 percent threshold, which is the standard for Democrat nominating processes in all states.

Per the outlet:

From there, the formula gets more complicated. Of the 92 pledged Democratic delegates in Massachusetts, 60 are awarded based on the voting results in each congressional district. The rest are awarded based on the statewide result.

Additionally, there are 24 unpledged Democratic delegates from Massachusetts. At the DNC, unpledged delegates can technically vote for any candidate, but are only allowed to vote on the first ballot if the race is not closely contested.

CBS News points out that 24 delegates are on the line in Maine, where Biden’s only opponent was Phillips. The congressman needs to eclipse that 15 percent threshold to score some delegates.

This year marked Maine’s first “semi-open” primary, meaning registered voters not enrolled in a party were free to vote in whichever primary they chose, as WGME noted. Unaffiliated voters account for 29 percent of the registered voters in the state, per the outlet.

Biden eked out a close win in the 2020 Maine Democrat primary over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), taking 34.1 percent of the vote to the senator’s 32.9 percent.

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