Democratic presidential primary election, 2006

☜ 2002 • • 2010 ☞
UNITED STATES PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY January—June 2006
	Matt Santos	Bob Russell	John Hoynes
	Texas	Colorado	Texas
VOTES
delegates
	1,599	1,677	956
contests
	12	25 + DC	13
popular
	n/a	n/a	n/a
PERCENTAGE
	n/a	n/a	n/a

The 2006 Democratic Presidential Primaries were held to determine the Democratic Party's nominee for the 2006 Presidential Election. President Bartlet's two-term presidency left a lack of strong candiates to retain the White House. Early front runner Pennsylvania Governor Eric Baker declined to run, giving Vice President Russell front runner status, winning 25 states during the primaries ("2162 Votes"). Leo McGarry, a prominent Democratic politician and then-counselor to Josiah Bartlet, believed, after Senator Arnold Vinick became the front runner for the Republican Nomination, that the Democrats had no one who could beat him.

Candidates

DECLARED

• Vice President Bob Russell of Colorado
• Former Vice President John Hoynes of Texas
• Congressman Matt Santos of Texas
• Senator Wendell Tripplehorn
• Senator Ricky Rafferty
• Clarkson
• Hogan
• Atkins

Iowa Caucus

AHEAD OF CAUCUS

Russell was the frontrunner with Hoynes second and the other candidates polling very low (Santos is said to be polling at 3%)

RESULTS

Vice President Robert Russell won the caucus.

New Hampshire Primary

BEFORE THE PRIMARY

• Seven candidates are on the ballot (Amy Gardner calls them the "Seven Dwarves")
• Russell and Hoynes are the only candidates to poll at over 20%
• Russell and Hoynes hit each other hard with a ton of negative ads with Russell highlighting Hoynes' pro-gun voting record when he was Senator, while Hoynes attacked Russell for being coy with the mining industry

RESULTS

Vice President Robert Russell won the New Hampshire Primary. Santos came in third with 19%.

South Carolina Primary

Former Vice President John Hoynes likely won this contest. It is likely Ricky Rafferty dropped out of the primary election after this one.

Arizona Primary

Little is known about it, apart from the fact Matt Santos won it ("A Good Day")

New Mexico Primary

Little is known about it, apart from the fact Matt Santos won it ("A Good Day")

Super Tuesday

RESULTS

Matt Santos wins California ("La Palabra")

Bob Russell wins in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont ("La Palabra")

Texas Primary

Santos won the Texas Primary. ("2162 Votes")

Florida Primary

Santos won the Florida Primary. ("2162 Votes")

Pennsylvania Primary

Santos won the Pennsylvania Primary. ("2162 Votes")

Illinois Primary

Santos won the Illinois Primary. ("2162 Votes")

New Jersey Primary

This was the last primary of the cycle. Santos won it by less than 1% over Russell ("In God We Trust")