As of Feb. 14, Joe Biden is no longer the front-runner of the democratic presidential race. Sen. Bernie Sanders is leading in the national polling average with 28%; Biden in second with 16%.
Iowa Caucuses (Feb. 3)
There have been three official caucuses/primaries as of Feb. 26. The first was the Iowa caucus on Monday, Feb. 3. After some technical difficulties with a new app that had voters and politicians alike in a stir, results were finally official on Feb. 9. Buttigieg and Sen. Sanders were nearly tied. Sen. Sanders ended up winning what is the popular vote with 45,831 votes compared to Buttigieg’s 43,273. Though Sen. Sanders won more votes, Buttigieg got more national delegates: 14 over Sen. Sanders’s 12. After the initial polling, both candidates made bold remarks about winning Iowa at their rallies that night before official votes were counted.
As for the other candidates, Sen. Warren made third place and eight delegates. Biden came in fourth (though he was to at least be in the top three) with six delegates, half of what was expected for him. Iowa was a poor start for Biden’s campaign, but he keeps his hopes up for South Carolina on Feb. 29. Rounding out the top five, Sen. Amy Klobuchar came in fifth and was able to snag one national delegate.
Trump won the Republican caucus with 31, 464 votes and 39 out of the 40 delegates.
New Hampshire Primaries (Feb. 11)
The following week’s Tuesday saw Sen. Sanders and Buttigieg tied with nine delegates, though Sanders won the popular vote by approximately 4,000 votes (Sen. Sanders: 76,324; Buttigieg: 72,457). Buttigieg was expected to receive nine national delegates, but the fact that he did so well in Iowa and has tied Sanders for delegates in New Hampshire makes him a serious contender and on everyone’s radar.
Sen. Klobuchar jumped into third place to everyone’s surprise with 58, 796 votes and six delegates. She was only expected to receive one national delegate, so the outcome was more than the Klobuchar campaign could have hoped for.
Neither Sen. Warren nor Biden won any delegates. Biden didn’t even stay in New Hampshire until polls closed. He had decided to move on to more diverse states and skip out on his own rally that night.
Democrats had a total of 296,622 votes; Republicans had 151,602. Trump received 129,696 of those votes and all 22 delegates.
Nevada (Feb. 22)
Now for the latest caucus: Nevada on Saturday, Feb. 22. Sen. Sanders pulls ahead of the other candidates by winning 24 out of the 36 national delegates. The other third was divided between Biden with nine and Buttigieg with three.
The gap between first and second place was huge. Sen. Sanders won 40.5% of the vote (41,075 votes), while Biden didn’t even get half of that. Biden and Buttigieg were significantly closer. Biden coming in with 18.9% of the vote and Buttigieg with 17.3%. Buttigieg was expected to do much better than he did, receiving half of the delegates forecasted.
In other words, Bernie swept this caucus clean. He has become increasingly popular with latinx voters. A higher percentage of latinx are voting this year than ever before due to not only President Trump’s immigration policies, but also worry over job security.
The Nevada Republican caucus was cancelled this year.
Pete Buttigieg was in the lead with 22 national delegates, Sen. Sanders close behind with 21 prior to the Nevada caucus. Now after Nevada, Sen. Sanders leads with 45, Buttigieg with 25, and Biden with 15. The next closest is Sen. Elizabeth Warren with only 8 delegates. Sen. Warren has not received any delegates from the past two polls.
