'Big Tuesday': 4 important things about Democratic Party’s 6-state contest

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Delegate scorecard

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) (L) looks on during the Democratic presidential primary debate at the Charleston Gaillard Center on February 25, 2020, in Charleston, South Carolina. | Win McNamee/Getty Images

In order to secure the Democratic Party presidential nomination, a candidate must get at least 1,991 delegates out of a total of 3,979 assigned by the party.

On the eve of the Tuesday primaries, Biden leads with 664 delegates, with Sanders in second place with 573 delegates and Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii with 2 delegates, according to the Associated Press.

If no candidate achieves the 1,991 number, then the Democratic National Convention in July will be a “contested convention” in which those present will vote to determine the nominee.

The last contested convention for Democrats was in 1984, when Walter Mondale went into the convention without the necessary number of delegates to be nominated. He later won the nomination on the first ballot at the convention.