The Coronavirus Means The 2020 Primary Season Will End Later Than Ever
Former Vice President Joe Biden is the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, but the 2020 primary season is only getting longer — because the public-health threat posed by the new coronavirus keeps delaying primary elections. A grand total of 17 presidential primaries have now been postponed on account of the pandemic.
Since our last dispatch on this topic, four more states have been added to the ranks: Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and New Jersey. In addition, five places that had already postponed their primaries rescheduled a second time: Ohio, Puerto Rico, Georgia, Louisiana and Connecticut. All these moves have left us with a presidential primary calendar that is extremely backloaded.
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Since March 17 — the last big competitive primary day and the first that really ran up against the coronavirus scare — only three states have wrapped up their presidential primaries. By contrast, nine contests are now slated for June 2, which has become a sort of unexpected mini Super Tuesday. And five primaries are now taking place after June 9, which was originally the last day for states to hold their primaries without penalty.
Given the circumstances, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Democratic National Committee decides to go easy on them, but some of these primaries are really late. Connecticut’s, for example, is now scheduled for Aug. 11, which is just a week before the Democratic National Convention (which was itself rescheduled). And according to presidential primaries expert and FiveThirtyEight contributor Josh Putnam, that would be the latest contest ever in the modern era of presidential primaries.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-coronavirus-means-the-2020-primary-season-will-end-later-than-ever/
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