2018 Christian Democratic Union of Germany leadership election


The 2018 Christian Democratic Union leadership election took place during the party's 31st Congress in Hamburg at the Messehallen convention center on 7–8 December following Angela Merkel's decision in October 2018 not to stand for party leader at the 2018 party conference following the party's bad performance in the 2018 Hessian state election and the party's consistently low numbers in national polls.
In the subsequent party executive meeting on 29 October 2018, both the CDU's General Secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and the Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn announced their candidacy in the election. This was followed by Merkel's arch-rival Friedrich Merz, who announced his bid on 30 October 2018. Spahn was eliminated after the first round, and Kramp-Karrenbauer subsequently won close-run second round of voting by 18 votes.

Candidates

Declared

To be able to run as candidate for CDU leader, a person needs to be endorsed by a subdivision of the party or the proposal by a delegate during the party convention.

Running

The following people ran in the leadership election, having fulfilled the criteria to become a candidate in the convention.
The following CDU politicians announced their intention to run for CDU leadership, but did not receive an endorsement by either a subdivision or a delegate.
The following politicians intended to run for the office, but withdrew their candidacy.

Opinion polling

;Among Delegates
Publication datePoll source
Kramp-Karrenbauer
Merz

Spahn		None/
Others
Publication datePoll sourceNone/
Others
1 Dec 20189614429732

;Only Union/CDU Voters
Publication datePoll source
Kramp-Karrenbauer
Laschet
Merz

Spahn		None/
Others
Publication datePoll sourceNone/
Others
7 Dec 201849—35610
6 Dec 201847—37124
30 Nov 201848—35215
23 Nov 201838—29627
17 Nov 201832—49712
15 Nov 201846—311211
9 Nov 201835—33725
4 Nov 201839—4498
30 Oct 2018
62365329

Results