WASHINGTON – Democrats in the nation’s capital will have the opportunity to weigh in on the race for the White House on Tuesday as the presidential primary calendar enters its final days. Voters in Washington, D.C., will vote in the Democratic presidential primaries, as well as in Congress and city offices.
President Joe Biden is the only major candidate left on the ballot in the city that gave him a higher vote share than any state in the 2020 general election against then-President Donald Trump. After Tuesday’s contests in D.C., Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota, as well as two caucuses in Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands on June 8, Biden will be ready to officially accept the nomination he won unofficially on March 12th.
The DC municipal presidential primary will feature only the Democratic contest. Republicans held a party primary in March, the first of two victories that former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley won against Trump.
Voters will also decide the contested primary for the city’s non-voting delegate to the U.S. House as well as several city council seats. The city’s unofficial shadow seat in the U.S. House and one of two shadow seats in the U.S. Senate are also on the ballot. Created in 1990, shadow senators and representatives are not officially members of Congress and instead serve as advocates for representation and statehood in DC.
While most municipal primaries on the ballot involve incumbents running for re-election, the District 7 City Council Democratic primary is a contest for open seats with 10 candidates. The incumbent is former mayor Vincent Gray, who is retiring after suffering a series of health problems in recent years.
The primaries will, for the first time, allow noncitizens to vote for municipal offices, including Tuesday’s city council elections, but not for president or other federal offices. Republicans in the U.S. House are leading an effort to block the voting law from taking effect in Tuesday’s primary. The measure passed the House on May 23, but a similar bill in the U.S. Senate was blocked, effectively leaving the law in effect. The issue of noncitizen voting has become a centerpiece of Republican messaging.
Here’s a look at what to expect on Tuesday:
The Washington, D.C., primary will be held on Tuesday. Voting closes at 8pm ET.
The Associated Press will release vote totals and declare winners in the Democratic presidential primary, as well as the hotly contested primary for U.S. delegate to Congress, city council, shadow senator and shadow representative. The candidates in the presidential primaries are Biden, Marianne Williamson, Armando Perez-Serrato, as well as a spot for write-in candidates.
Only voters registered with a party can participate in that party’s primaries. Republicans cannot vote in the Democratic primary. Independent or unaffiliated voters cannot participate in any party’s primaries.
The 20 pledged Democratic delegates in DC are allocated according to standard national party rules. Five at-large delegates are allocated proportionally to the citywide vote, as are two PLEO delegates, or “party leaders and elected officials.” The city has grouped its eight districts into two districts with a total of 13 delegates at stake, which are allocated proportionally to the voting results in each district. Candidates must receive at least 15% of the vote citywide to qualify for any citywide delegates, and 15% of the vote in a congressional district to qualify for delegates in that district.
Biden enters the D.C. primary as the prohibitive favorite, as none of his remaining challengers have made much of an impact in any primary or caucus to date. Early indications that he is winning citywide at a level consistent with the overwhelming margins seen in most other contests held this year could be enough to determine the citywide winner.
In local elections, five of the seven contested Democratic primaries feature incumbents running for re-election, most of whom won the last primary by wide margins. The incumbent with the smallest margin of victory in the recent primaries is shadow Rep. Oye Owolewa, who won the 2022 Democratic nomination by a margin of 5 percentage points. Previous primary results for these five races will provide a good benchmark for how each incumbent is faring when the results come in on Tuesday night.
Determining the winner in the District 7 city council primary could take longer than current races, given the 10-candidate field. Gray won a six-candidate primary in 2020 with just 45% of the fewer than 12,000 votes cast. With four more candidates running and no incumbents on the ballot, this year’s race could come down to a relatively small number of votes.
The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it is determined that there is no scenario that would allow trailing candidates to close the gap. If a race is not called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or victory declarations. In doing so, the AP will make it clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.
In D.C. elections, recounts are automatic in U.S. House and city council races if the margin is less than 1% of the total vote. The AP may declare a winner in a race eligible for recount if it can determine that the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the result.
As of April 30, there were 450,750 registered voters in Washington. Of these, 77% were Democrats, 5% were Republicans and 16% were not registered with any party.
In the 2022 primaries, turnout was 26% of registered voters in the Democratic primary and less than 1% in the Republican primary. About 76% of primary voters voted before primary day that year.
On Tuesday, a total of 31,421 ballots were cast before primary day.
In the 2022 D.C. primary, the AP first reported the results at 8:30 p.m. ET, or 30 minutes after polls closed. Election night counting ended at 11:59 pm ET, with about 69% of the total votes counted.
As of Tuesday, there will be 41 days until the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, 76 days until the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and 154 days until the November general election.
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