MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — Pete Buttigieg was mum on whether his campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination would request a recanvass after the Iowa Democratic Party declared him the winner of the state’s first-in-the-nation contest.
The Iowa Democratic Party late Thursday reported data from 100% of its precincts after days of slowly releasing batches of error-riddled information since the caucuses were held on Monday night.
In the final tally, Buttigieg received 26.2% state delegate equivalents, the metric used to calculate how many delegates the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor will have on his side of the ledger to become his party’s standard-bearer. His margin of victory, however, is razor thin: Bernie Sanders earned 26.1% state delegate equivalents while Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has 18%, Vice President Joe Biden 15.8%, and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar 12.3%.
“Well, that’s fantastic news. First of all, I want to say, Sen. Sanders clearly had a great night, too, and I congratulate him and his supporters,” Buttigieg said when advised of the outcome during a CNN town hall.
The Associated Press hasn’t called the race for Buttigieg yet, given the discrepancies. The uncertainty regarding the results has been further fueled by Buttigieg and Sanders, who have both declared victory in the kickoff caucuses. Although Buttigieg is leading in delegates, Sanders is ahead in the popular vote. The Vermont senator attracted 45,826 votes, 2,631 more than Buttigieg’s 43,195.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez earlier on Thursday called on the Iowa Democratic Party “to immediately begin a recanvass,” which involves double-checking existing records.
But Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price quickly responded that his organization was “prepared” and reminded Perez the campaigns themselves have to request the process.
Buttigieg, on CNN on Thursday, expressed his support for any effort the party as a whole needed “to do in order to make sure that the information is clear and verified.”
“I’ll leave it to the party to get into that, but you know what I’ll say is, nothing can take away what happened on Monday, just an extraordinary moment for the movement that we have built, and now, we’re looking ahead to New Hampshire and beyond,” he said.
Sanders’s campaign, meanwhile, said the updated numbers are more favorable to them.
“Tonight’s release of data by the Iowa Democratic Party confirms Sen. Bernie Sanders won the Iowa caucus,” Sanders’s senior adviser Jeff Weaver said. “We also feel confident that the discrepancies we’re providing tonight, in addition to those widely identified in the national media, mean that the SDE count will never be known with any kind of certainty. Given the rules changes we fought for that required the release of the popular vote count, SDEs are now an antiquated and meaningless metric for deciding the winner of the Iowa caucus.”
The White House hopefuls have until 1 p.m. EST to file for a recanvass or a recount. If no candidate submits a request, news outlets are expected to call the contest for Buttigieg.
