From The New York Times:
Bernie Sanders is right: The Iowa Democratic caucuses were a “virtual tie,” especially after you consider that the results aren’t even actual vote tallies, but state delegate equivalents subject to all kinds of messy rounding rules and potential geographic biases.
The official tally, for now, is Hillary Clinton at 49.9 percent, and Mr. Sanders at 49.6 percent with 97 percent of precincts reporting early Tuesday morning.
But in the end, a virtual tie in Iowa is an acceptable, if not ideal, result for Mrs. Clinton and an ominous one for Mr. Sanders. He failed to win a state tailor made to his strengths.
Continue reading the main story
Related Coverage
The 2016 Race: Bernie Sanders Is Making Surprising Gains With Less Affluent Whites
He fares best among white voters. The electorate was 91 percent white, per the entrance polls. He does well with less affluent voters. The caucus electorate was far less affluent than the national primary electorate in 2008. He’s heavily dependent on turnout from young voters, and he had months to build a robust field operation. As the primaries quickly unfold, he won’t have that luxury.
Continue reading the main story
Clinton Has Won Iowa Caucuses
Final vote counts showed Hillary Clinton narrowly beating Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, according to The Associated Press and other news organizations.
Iowa is not just a white state, but also a relatively liberal one — one of only a few of states where Barack Obama won white voters in the 2008 primary and in both general elections. It is also a caucus state, which tends to attract committed activists.
In the end, Mr. Sanders made good on all of those strengths. He excelled in college towns. According to the entrance polls, he won an astonishing 84 percent of those 17 to 29 (17-year-olds can caucus in Iowa if they’re 18 by the general election) — even better than Mr. Obama in the 2008 caucus. He won voters making less than $50,000 a year, again outperforming Mr. Obama by a wide margin. He won “very liberal” voters comfortably, 58 to 39 percent.
But these strengths were neatly canceled by Mrs. Clinton’s strengths. She won older voters, more affluent voters, along with “somewhat liberal” and “moderate” Democrats.
This raises a straightforward challenge for Mr. Sanders. He has nearly no chance to do as well among nonwhite voters as Mr. Obama did in 2008. To win, Mr. Sanders will need to secure white voters by at least a modest margin and probably a large one. In the end, Mr. Sanders failed to score a clear win in a state where Mr. Obama easily defeated Mrs. Clinton among white voters.
Donald Trump is having second thoughts about his second place finish in the Iowa caucuses.
After saying Monday that he was pleased with his second place finish, and maintaining a relatively low-key mien on Tuesday, Mr. Trump on Wednesday charged caucus winner Ted Cruz with stealing the Iowa race and called for a do-over.
“Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he stole it. That is why all of the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated. Bad!” the celebrity billionaire tweeted.
He accused the Texas senator’s campaign of sending out a press release during the caucus announcing that Ben Carson was quitting the race, and advising voters to caucus for Mr. Cruz instead. Mr. Carson placed fourth in the caucus.
