Thirty percent of Wareham voters turned out to vote in the presidential primary on March 3, and their preferences lined up with the state overall as former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump had solid leads over the runners-up.

Biden won 37.6 percent of the Democratic vote, while Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders came in second with 28.4 percent of the vote.

The Republican primary was far more decisive, with 93.3 percent -- 1,223 people -- voting for current President Donald Trump.

Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren received 14.3 percent of the vote, just ahead of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg with 11.9 percent. Bloomberg announced on March 4 that he was dropping out of the race.

Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg received 3.9 percent to Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar’s 1.6 percent. Both Buttigieg and Klobuchar suspended their campaigns on Monday and endorsed Biden. 
Wareham’s Democratic voters aligned with those across the state.

With 90 percent of precincts reporting as of Wareham Week’s print deadline, Biden won the state with 33.7 percent of votes. Sanders received 26.6 percent of the votes, and Warren came in third with 21.2 percent.
Statewide, Republican voters were slightly less in favor of Trump than those in Wareham. He received 87.6 percent of votes statewide.

Former Massachusetts Senator William Weld won 5.9 percent of the Republican vote in Wareham and 9.3 percent statewide.

Thirty percent of Wareham’s registered voters -- a total of 4,918 people -- turned out for the primary.

In 2016, 39 percent of voters participated in the primaries, which were hotly contested in both parties, and only 13 percent did so in 2012.

Although the overall percentage of voters participating in this year’s primary was down, 264 more people voted in the Democratic primary in 2020 -- 3,515 -- than in the 2016 primary, when 3,251 people weighed in.

Bernie Sanders won in Wareham in 2016, when he won 51.6 percent, or 1,653 votes to Hillary Clinton’s 47.5 percent, or 1,524 votes. 

Sanders fared significantly worse in Wareham in 2020’s four-way contest, winning only 987 votes -- 666 fewer than in 2016. 

In 2016, Trump received 1,468 votes, while his Republican opponents received a total of 1,006.