What happens to Pete Buttigieg's 26 delegates now that he's ended his Democratic presidential bid?
Pete Buttigieg ended his presidential campaign on Sunday night throwing the race for the Democratic nomination wide open and giving Joe Biden — who was faltering until the South Carolina primaries reaffirmed his status as a viable candidate — a timely boost.
While Buttigieg has confirmed he is no longer in the race, he has not yet officially filed for his withdrawal. This means his name will still be on the ballot come Super Tuesday on March 2, when 14 states will hold primary elections and caucuses, and approximately a third of all delegates can be won by a candidate.
It is, of course, extremely unlikely that voters will write his name on the ballot — except for the few who will undoubtedly do it in rebellion — but his dropping out has raised the question of what will happen to the delegates he has already won?
Buttigieg threw a wrench in the works when he came out on top in the Iowa caucuses and then had another strong showing in New Hampshire, though his struggle to win over voters of color in Nevada and South Carolina sounded the death knell for his campaign.
Having won 14 delegates in Iowa and 9 in New Hampshire, the former South Bend, Indiana mayor won just three in Nevada and none in South Carolina. The total of 26 delegates is meager when you consider there are a total of 4,765 available to be won, but could nonetheless prove to be deciding in such a close race.
Of the 50 states, 13 have specific clauses about what happens to the delegates of candidates that drop out. In 37 other states, the candidates can unbind their delegates if they choose to do so.
Usually, the candidate will then direct the delegates to go to an opponent of his choosing, which is what transpired in 2016 when Bernie Sanders lost out the nomination to Hillary Clinton.
It also happened in 2008, when John Edwards, who dropped out in February after collecting some delegates, went on to endorse eventual winner Barack Obama in May.
Colorado, which will be one of the states holding its primaries on Tuesday, is an interesting case in this regard because Buttigieg could end up winning delegates quite inadvertently.
The state does not allow citizens to vote again if they have already dropped in their ballot, which many seemingly have. Buttigieg had been polling at 11 percent in the state just one day before the primary, according to FiveThirtyEight. Luckily, the current rules mean candidates must win at least 15% of the vote to receive any delegates, and the odds of it happening are minute.
For now, Buttigieg's 26 delegates will continue to stay with him, and it will likely stay that way unless it reaches a point where a second vote is required at the Democratic convention in July — a scenario which is dubbed a "contested convention."
A "contested convention" happens when no candidate has a majority of the pledged delegates and no agreement is reached amongst the candidates, at which point the convention vote goes to a second ballot. This is when an additional batch of party regulars — 714 of them to be exact — called superdelegates, which are usually Democratic members of Congress, Governors, former Presidents, and elected officials will be allowed to vote.
The race is a close one and in his defiant speech announcing the end of his campaign, Buttigieg stressed that the people unite to vote for one candidate even as chants of '2024! 2024! 2014!' broke out in the boisterous crowd.
"We have a responsibility to concede the effect of remaining in this race any further," he said. "Our goal has always been to help unify Americans to defeat Donald Trump and to win the era for our values.'