The Biden campaign’s co-chair, former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, declared Joe Biden to be the “Democratic nominee” during a television appearance on June 9, 2020, before a single vote in the Democratic Presidential Primary had been cast.
Buttigieg’s comments, made during an interview on MSNBC, sparked criticism from the campaigns of the other candidates who remained in the race at the time including Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Senator Amy Klobuchar.
However, Buttigieg later clarified his statement saying “I misspoke on that one… my point was that Joe Biden is obviously the frontrunner, and he entered the field with very high name recognition and a strong position in the polls. It’s a testament to the energy behind the other campaigns.”.
After the first round of primary voting, Biden secured the delegates that he needed to become the Democratic Presidential nominee on June 6, 2020. Since then, Biden has officially been accepted as the Democratic nominee by both the Democratic National Committee and the former Democratic primary candidates.
