Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders lead the pack in the 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses, according to partial results released by the Iowa Democratic Party.
Caucus data continued to trickle in Wednesday, as the field turned its attention to New Hampshire two days after the first-in-the-nation nominating contest. The state party released results from 86% of precincts by Wednesday night.
The former South Bend, Indiana, mayor has 26.7% of state delegate equivalents, narrowly topping the Vermont senator at 25.4%, according to the data. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., follows at 18.3%, ahead of former Vice President Joe Biden with 15.9%, according to the data. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., has 12.1% of support.
Technical glitches in an app used to report caucus data delayed results typically released the night of the Iowa presidential caucuses, which took place Monday. Candidates started to move on to New Hampshire on Tuesday ahead of its Feb. 11 primary, but not before they put positive spin on the Hawkeye State outcome in the absence of official numbers.
Iowa Democratic Party spokeswoman Mandy McClure said this week that the party would “continue to release the results as we are able to.” The first set of data from more than half of the precincts came at about 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday, followed by more results just before midnight ET. The next chunks of numbers came Wednesday afternoon.
Adding to confusion and frustration, Iowa Democrats had to update one batch of data Wednesday after acknowledging they needed to make a “minor correction.” The figures the party initially released showed Buttigieg jumping barely ahead of Sanders in one of its three data sets, reallocated preference. But Sanders once again had an edge in that category when the numbers were reissued.
Just before the party released its first batch of data Tuesday, its chairman, Troy Price, apologized for the botched reporting process. He called it “unacceptable.” Price said Iowa Democrats would undertake a “thorough, transparent and independent examination of what occurred.”
Price said the party faced “multiple reporting challenges” including a “coding error” in the app used at caucus sites. He noted that Iowa Democrats have taken their time out of an “abundance of caution” to make sure the data is accurate. Price said the party has a paper trail to verify electronically reported data.
Chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party Troy Price exits the stage after speaking about the technical issues that delayed the Iowa Democratic caucuses results during a news conference at the Iowa Events Center on February 4, 2020 in Des Moines, Iowa.
Joshua Lott | AFP | Getty Images
The party has stressed that a cyberattack or intrusion did not cause the technological issues.
Multiple Democratic campaigns criticized the delay in releasing results. The chaos fueled more calls from observers to do away with caucuses or Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status.
In the absence of results, campaigns announced internal tallies — which can skew toward their candidates. The data suggested some combination of Sanders, Buttigieg and Warren were competing at the top of the caucus field.
Buttigieg declared victory early Tuesday morning — the only candidate to do so before the state party released any data. Speaking in New Hampshire after Iowa Democrats released results, he said a campaign that “some said should have no business even making this attempt has taken its place at the front of this race.”
Speaking before results were released Tuesday, Sanders said “we’re not declaring victory.”
After the Iowa results started to come out, he said to reporters in New Hampshire, “I’m very proud to tell you that last night in Iowa we received more votes on the first and second round than any other candidate.”
“For some reason in Iowa, they’re having a little bit of trouble counting votes,” he continued. “But I am confident that here in New Hampshire I know you’ll be able to count those votes on election night.”
Sanders had the highest share of support when caucus voters chose their first preference and second alignments in the precincts shared by the state party. But he trailed in state delegate equivalents.
Warren responded to her third-place position in the initial data, tweeting that “we are in a strong position heading into New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina and Super Tuesday.”
Biden’s campaign was particularly critical of the state party. A Biden campaign lawyer sent a letter to the state party on Monday saying “we believe that the campaigns deserve full explanations and relevant information regarding the methods of quality control you are employing, and an opportunity to respond, before any official results are released,” NBC News reported.
The Biden campaign aimed to persuade donors Tuesday that the former vice president could win the third and fourth nominating contests in Nevada and South Carolina, respectively, after early indications suggested he could trail his top rivals in Iowa.
Biden said Wednesday that “we took a gut punch” in Iowa. But he told supporters in New Hampshire that “we’re going to come back.”
US Presidential candidate and former US Vice President Joe Biden gestures as he addresses supporters and curious voters at the IBEW Local 490 in Concord, New Hampshire on February 4, 2020.
Joseph Prezioso | AFP | Getty Images
UPDATE: An earlier version of this story cited Iowa Democratic Party figures that the organization later corrected.
