US Elections 2020: Pete Buttigieg Leads Iowa Caucus For Democratic Nomination, Joe Biden Trails At Fourth

Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend in Indiana, looks set to win the Iowa Caucus of the Democratic party presidential primaries. However, the race was too tight to call even with 92 percent of the state's precincts reporting. Senator Bernie Sanders (78) more than double the age of young Pete Buttigieg was a close second and may win the popular vote with Mayor Pete set to win the most state delegates. The results have been delayed due to a technical snag resulting in a major embrassement for the Democratic party.

Bernie Sanders was leading the vote count with 26.1 per cent with Buttigieg (25.4 per cent) a very close second followed by Elizabeth Warren (18.3 percent). To the surprise of many, former vice president Joe Biden (77) was trailing at the fourth position, getting just 13.7 percent of the total votes counted, according to NYT.

However, Buttigieg led the count in terms of state delegates (SDEs) with 532 (26.5%) followed by Sanders at 513 (25.6%), Warren at 366 (18.3%) and Biden at 319 (15.9%). These state delegates will determine who gets the most delegates to the Democratic National Convention where the next candidate to challenge Donald Trump in the US Presidential Election 2020 will be selected.

Iowa awards 49 delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Wisconsin in July which will elect its nominee for the November 2020 presidential elections. Of these, 41 delegates are pledged delegates allocated on the basis of percentage of votes each candidate get in the caucus.

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In an interview to CNN, Buttigieg, who claimed victory in Iowa, said the caucus results "amounts to a remarkable victory for our campaign's vision and message" and that it's an extraordinary validation for his belief that "we can unify people and unify people both to lead and to win in an election that we can't afford to lose".

Iowa chose a new path—a choice New Hampshire can make one week from today.

If you're with me, chip in: https://t.co/lJXXbBjL7F pic.twitter.com/wjbAxp3xMX

— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) February 4, 2020

The presidential primaries that kicked off Monday with the Iowa Caucus will now be held in all of the 50 States to determine the allocation of 3979 pledged for the Democratic National Convention. In addition, there are 771 unpledged delegates who are officials and elected representatives of the party.

Meanwhile, other Democratic candidates have started their campaign in New Hampshire which is scheduled to hold its primary next Tuesday.

A similar process is on in the ruling Republican party. President Donald Trump who is seeking his reelection was declared winner of the GOP's Iowa Caucus with 95 percent of the votes.