1980 Democratic Party presidential primaries

1980 Democratic Party presidential primaries

← 1976 January 21 to June 3, 1980 1984 →
3,346 delegates to the 1980 Democratic National Convention 1,674 delegates votes needed to win
Candidate Jimmy Carter Ted Kennedy Home state Georgia Massachusetts Delegate count 1,984 [a][1] 1,237 [b][2] Contests won 37 13 Popular vote 10,043,016 7,381,693 Percentage 51.1% 37.6%
Democratic presidential primary map, 1980.svg      Carter      Kennedy      Uncommitted
Previous Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter

From January 21 to June 3, 1980, voters of the Democratic Party chose its nominee for president in the 1980 United States presidential election. Incumbent President Jimmy Carter was again selected as the nominee through a series of primary elections and caucuses, culminating in the 1980 Democratic National Convention, held from August 11 to 14, 1980, in New York City.

Carter faced a major primary challenger in Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, who won 12 contests and received more than seven million votes nationwide, enough for him to refuse to concede the nomination until the second day of the convention. This remains the last primary election in which an incumbent president's party nomination was still contested going into the convention.

Jimmy Carter would be the last incumbent president to lose a primary in any contest, until Joe Biden did in 2024 to Jason Palmer in the 2024 American Samoa Democratic presidential caucuses.^[3] For the Democrats in 1980 a then-record of 37 primary races were held.^[4]

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