After the mess with the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary and Nevada caucuses were conducted quite smoothly. The New Hampshire results were predictable by the polls. By the time of New Hampshire on February 11th, Sanders was at the top of the polls with Buttigieg and Klobuchar at second and third, respectively. In the primary, Sanders was first, Buttigieg second, and Klobuchar third. In fact, the top five places perfectly aligned with the top five places in the New Hampshire polls. Despite Sanders having more votes than Buttigieg, they both received the same number of pledged delegates, keeping Buttiegieg in the lead by a single delegate.
On the day of the primary, the number of Democratic candidates decreased once again. Governor Deval Patrick, Andrew Yang, and Senator Michael Bennet dropped out of the presidential race. Patrick withdrew his bid after seeing the low votes in New Hampshire, believing that it would not be enough to go onto the Nevada caucus. Yang insists that they are just getting started, and the fact that the idea of a universal basic income has entered the minds of many Americans and mainstream politics is a win in and of itself. Bennet hinted in his announcement that he may come back in the future and run again for president.
Nevada Still Awaiting a Final Call
The Nevada caucus results were obtained with more ease and efficiency than Iowa. The results aligned with the Nevada polls as well: Sanders first, Biden second, Buttigieg third, and Warren fourth. Despite Steyer standing 0.5 below Klobuchar in the polls, he placed higher than her in Nevada. Another slight deviation occurred between Buttigieg and Biden. They both had the same numbers in the polls, but Biden has less than 3,000 more votes than Buttigieg so far. This is the best Biden has done since the primaries have started despite polling second nationally.
We still await the final call since only 87.55% of the precincts have reported, but Sanders is projected to win. He currently has a little more than twice the votes Biden has and it would be extremely unlikely that anyone else would win. Despite recent candidate Michael Bloomberg standing in the top three nationally, he is still to gain impactful traction in the primaries. Some say it is because of his lack of presence on the debate stage thus far, but the pattern continued in the Nevada caucuses following the Democratic debate in Las Vegas. He is nowhere to be seen in the results.
In the primary results so far, Sanders has amassed 34 pledged delegates. Buttigieg has 23 and Warren and Biden are tied for 8. Klobuchar stands not far behind with 7 delegates. No matter where the candidates stand now, we must remember that we still have a long way to go. The South Carolina primary will be held this Saturday and Super Tuesday, the primary day for seventeen different states and regions, is still yet to come on March 3rd. Nothing can be decided until a candidate gets 1,991 pledged delegates.
Image by James Glover II via PBS.org: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/heres-how-the-nevada-caucuses-work
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1OKWM_enUS793US793&sxsrf=ALeKk0091R4sTKAqTZxzAC4DXV62y_E9DQ%3A1582518419403&ei=k1BTXsGaGIaGsAWSl5eoCA&q=primary+results&oq=primary+res&gs_l=psy-ab.3.0.35i39j0i273j0i67j0i131j0i3j0i10j0l4.1022.1022..1886...0.2..0.169.169.0j1......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i71.h7kKSufSw9g (results taken from the Associated Press)