While the Democratic National Convention has not committed to announcing official results until the day after the Nevada caucuses, multiple reports and projections have already called the vote for Senator Bernie Sanders.
At time of publication, The Washington Post, Fox News, NBC News, Vox, and the Huffington Post have declared Sanders the eventual winner of the contest.
Related: Pete Buttigieg’s brother-in-law says his campaign is “anti-God”
Most reported votes, both in the popular vote and delegate counts, show that Sanders has more than twice the support than the next closest candidate. After him, various reports show Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, and Elizabeth Warren all in the distance, but very close in the race for the still-undeclared second.
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Early analysis concludes that this makes Sanders the clear frontrunner in the campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination.
The Republican National Convention cancelled their caucuses.
BREAKING: @BernieSanders is the projected winner of the #NevadaCaucus #NotMeUs
LET'S SEE THOSE RECEIPTS: https://t.co/0S0Oh4ZkgU pic.twitter.com/IxWwHEFMg9
— People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) February 23, 2020
While Sanders has clear majority with over 50% of the popular vote being reported by the New York Times, early delegate tracking does shows that many of them are splitting their support between him and Buttigieg, the former out mayor of South Bend, Indiana. They are the only two candidates with more than 20 earned delegates at this time.
Buttigieg is also currently getting the third-most “reallocated preference” votes from caucusgoers, which a candidate earns if the “first-choice candidate does not receive enough support during the first.”
Winning Nevada may give Sanders a huge boost going into both South Carolina’s primary and Super Tuesday in the coming weeks, and also making clear strides in both minority and young voter demographics. “He’s done very well with Latino voters,” Sanders campaign co-chair Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) says about the candidate.
While Buttigieg, Biden, and Warren are collectively clobbering for second, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Tom Steyer are behind them in most projections. Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, did not qualify for ballots in Nevada.
Speaking in Las Vegas, Buttigieg has already congratulated Sanders, and celebrates that they share “many of the same ideas”, while cautioning against the latter’s campaign strategy. “Before we rush to nominate Senator Sanders in our one shot to take on this president, let us take a sober look at the consequences—for our party, for our values, and for those with the most at stake.”
Buttigieg also boasted about being “the only campaign that has beaten Senator Sanders anywhere in the country” up to this point in the race.
UPDATE:
With 22% of precincts reporting @PeteButtigieg is in 2nd place in the Nevada Caucus with 21% of total delegates. https://t.co/NNPRpRxYzY
— Team Pete HQ (@PeteForAmerica) February 23, 2020
The first caucus to come post-Iowa, Nevada’s contests have gone on without many reported major issues for those casting votes. The National Election Pool, however, did report that “there were a handful of precincts where confusion about the counting rules and/or incorporating the early vote was delaying the reporting of results.”