Updated at 5:37 a.m.
The outcome of the Iowa caucuses remained far from certain late Monday as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) took the stage in Des Moines, but that didn’t stop him from declaring a victory of sorts.
“Let me begin by stating that I imagine — I have a strong feeling — that at some point the results will be announced,” he said to cheers from supporters. “And when those results are announced, I have a good feeling we’re going to be doing very, very well here in Iowa.”
Scattered reports from precincts across the Hawkeye State seemed to confirm that suspicion. But citing “inconsistencies” in data reported by caucus chairs, Iowa Democratic Party officials refused to release results.
At Sanders’ watch party at a Holiday Inn in Des Moines, staffers scrambled to get Sanders onstage as rival candidates delivered their own quasi-victory speeches. Supporters were herded up on risers and began chanting, “Bernie beats Trump!” and the campaign slogan, “Not me, us!”
Sanders used his time on national television to deliver a condensed version of the stump speech he’s been giving in Iowa for nearly a year. And he took the opportunity to take on President Donald Trump directly. “Tonight, in this enormously consequential 2020 election, the first state in the country has voted and today — today marks the beginning of the end for Donald Trump!” he said.
Sanders thanked his campaign, calling it “the strongest movement this country has ever seen.”
“And now it is on to New Hampshire, South Carolina, California and onward to victory!” he said.
After Sanders concluded his remarks, campaign cochair Nina Turner took the stage and said that the candidate might reemerge later in the night if results were released. One by one, national surrogates followed her to the podium and delivered speeches to keep the crowd engaged. But just past midnight Central time, Turner told the crowd that the show was over.
As partygoers exited the building, the Sanders campaign attempted to regain control of the message by releasing its own internal results. The figures, which the campaign said represented 40 percent of Iowa precincts, showed Sanders leading, followed by former mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former vice president Joe Biden.
“We recognize that this does not replace the full data from the Iowa Democratic Party, but we believe firmly that our supporters worked too hard for too long to have the results of that work delayed,” Jeff Weaver, a senior adviser to Sanders’ campaign, said in a statement.
At one caucus in Urbandale, a suburb of Des Moines, Sanders had a fairly strong showing. At first count, 81 of the precinct’s 311 caucus-goers backed the senator from Vermont. Sixty-five stood with Warren, 60 with Buttigieg and 48 with Biden.
With just 35 supporters, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) fell short of the 15 percent “viability” threshold of 47 people, as did half a dozen other candidates.
As Sanders’ precinct captain, it was up to Katie Leeper, a 30-year-old art teacher, to track his supporters and persuade the undecided. “He listens to us. He listens to the people,” Leeper said, hailing what she said was Sanders’ “honesty, integrity and authenticity.”
Louis Hoehle, a 17-year-old high school student, agreed. “I’ve been following Bernie Sanders for a long time,” he said. “I think he’s the best one to take on corporations and be there for the little guy.”
After the initial count, precinct chair Rick Smith called on those whose candidates had been eliminated to find a new champion. Aaron Bopp, a 20-year-old college student, stood with other supporters of entrepreneur Andrew Yang and sported the campaign’s trademark MATH hat. Once his candidate was eliminated, he said, he planned to move to the Sanders camp. “Though he’s a lifelong politician, he’s still an outsider,” Bopp said of the senator from Vermont.
Colin Scanes, a 72-year-old consultant with a British accent, served as Klobuchar’s precinct captain. When she was eliminated, he convinced other supporters of hers to back Warren, calling the Massachusetts senator “sincere” and a good listener.
Christine Norris was the only caucus-goer in Urbandale who remained undecided during the first round. She stood in the middle of the room with her 15-month-old child in a stroller. “They all have good points,” she said, citing childcare as the issue she cared about most. A Buttigieg supporter who once lived in the candidate’s hometown of South Bend, Ind., persuaded her to join his side. “She let me know what kind of person he was,” Norris said.
By the end of the night, Sanders’ lead in the precinct had evaporated. In the final tally, he and Buttigieg both had the support of 84 caucus-goers, while Warren had 78 and Biden 58. The top three candidates were awarded three delegates apiece and Biden collected two.
Related Stories
Bernie Sanders Leaves Iowa a Front-Runner
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
It was nice to see the Dem party implode Monday night. “Inconsistencies” my ass. They are still trying to shove Bernie aside as they and the Hellary Goon Squad did in 2016. This time they can add as problem with their “app” to the mix. I can’t wait for them to somehow blame the Russians.
That’s what makes Bernie supporters so lovable: the paranoia. Yet another trait they have in common with Trump and his goon squad.
“ the Sanders campaign attempted to regain control of the message by releasing its own internal results “
So the message here is when you don’t get the result that you need, manufacture and release the result that you want.
LOL, the Dems keep tripping over themselves and they’ll point the finger and blame Russia or Trump. They have shown how absolutely paranoid they are with their failed three year, $40M Russian collusion hoax, then their failed Ukraine hoax, and all the while the culprit is right in their mirror.
It amazes me how Trump has crushed them all, along with their propaganda arm in the media, as the dishonest, deceitful and disgraceful power mongers they are.
None of this is going to matter when we reelect Trump this fall.
The DNC will kneecap Bernie again with their voting APPS this time instead of with Superdelegates like the last time.
Paranoia (n): A chronic form of insanity characterized by:
– gradual impairment of the intellect,
– a continuously simmering grudge against Bernies supporters,
– irrational fears of a Sanders Presidency and /or progressive ideals becoming part of the Democrat platform,
– delusions of persecution that one’s lickspittle servility is being intentionally undermined by unknown, evil, anti-Mirovian forces,
– the systematized delusion that all current societal ills are inextricably linked to the Kiss Administration, and
– a compulsive preoccupation with ensuring that a Seven Days article comment section doesnt close before Jonathan Leopold and/or Bob Kiss can be blamed for whatever.
Clusterfuck!
Is there anything the DNC can “try” that doesn’t end up a train wreck? Lol funny!
Bernie’s paranoid militants demanded to change the process and data streams that were to be reported. This should be a small example of how it is easy to shout platitudes and wave your arms, and demand that we tear things down, but it is completely another thing to competently build functioning products that work. Vermont is the American capital of unintended consequences brought on by impractical aspirational politics. How much time and treasure has been squandered in this state incompetently chasing feel-good aspirational pipe dreams? If this is the first glance at a rollout which ends up in the dismantling of our most complicated systems and building supposed new idealized versions, then we are #$%^$^.
Do Vermonters not remember the technological debacle of Vermont Health Connect that is still not really working? If so, here is a quote that will remind you, “It’s just been a spectacular crash, really,” said State Representative Chris Pearson, a member of Vermont’s Progressive Party. “We’ve gone from this vision of being the first state to achieve universal health care, to limping along and struggling to comply with the Affordable Care Act.”
BREAKING: Iowa still too Bernie to call