DES MOINES — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton carried a slight edge over Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in the Hawkeye State into the wee hours of Tuesday morning in the closest ever Democratic caucus in the state.
According to the Associated Press, Clinton had 49.89 percent of the vote, and Sanders had 49.54 percent with 99.9 percent reporting. It was enough for Sanders to delcare a “virtual tie” between the two candidates.
Clinton and Sanders virtually tied through much of the night, and in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, the state Democratic party released a statement, saying the race was “the closest in Iowa Democratic caucus history.”
“Hillary Clinton has been awarded 699.57 state delegate equivalents, Bernie Sanders has been awarded 695.49 state delegate equivalents, Martin O’Malley has been awarded 7.68 state delegate equivalents and uncommitted has been awarded .46 state delegate equivalents. We still have outstanding results in one precinct (Des Moines—42), which is worth 2.28 state delegate equivalents. We will report that final precinct when we have confirmed those results with the chair.”
In response, the Clinton campaign released a statement just after 3:30 a.m. eastern time, declaring , “Hillary Clinton has won the Iowa Caucus. After thorough reporting – and analysis – of results, there is no uncertainty and Secretary Clinton has clearly won the most national and state delegates. Statistically, there is no outstanding information that could change the results and no way that Senator Sanders can overcome Secretary Clinton’s advantage.”
The Clinton campaign first declared victory at 10:00 p.m. although official results had yet to completely come in. Sanders was supposed to leave Iowa for New Hampshire as soon as the caucusing concluded, but he remained in his hotel suite in Des Moines to see the final results and speak to supporters.
But the winner doesn’t win all the delegates at stake, and the virtual tie means delegates from Iowa will be split. The AP’s delegate tracker said that was resulting in 28 delegate votes for Clinton, and 21 for Sanders.
Going in to the caucus, Clinton led Sanders by three points 45-42, according to the final Des Moines Register primary poll released on Saturday night. When Sanders first launched his campaign in Iowa, he had only 5 percent of the vote, and extremely little name recognition as the former secretary of state was expected to easily clinch the nomination.
But his sweeping economic agenda, which includes promises of free college, universal healthcare, mandatory paid leave, and tougher regulations of Wall Street, generated enthusiasm among younger voters and very liberal ones.
Sanders’ strongest precincts were in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, whereas Clinton did extremely well in Des Moines and Dubuque.
There will be no recount in the race, despite how close the vote is. The Iowa Democratic Party runs the caucus, not the state, meaning that the party is under no obligation to recount the votes if the race is very close.
