The democratic party establishment in Iowa has to put up with a damper: The politically inexperienced Pete Buttigieg prevails in the first area code, right in front of the left-wing candidate Bernie Sanders.
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Pete Buttigieg’s prospective win is a bit of a surprise, on average of the polls he was last behind Sanders and Joe Biden.
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The Democratic Presidential Candidates spent millions of dollars last year in Iowa, visiting some villages and towns half a dozen times – all in the hope of being chosen as the winner in front of TV cameras in the evening of the Iowa Caucuses and with tailwind to the others To draw primaries.
But the Iowa accolade does not take place this year, the magic of the moment has evaporated. Even 48 hours after the end of the caucuses, the Democratic Party has not published an end result, the political circus has now moved on to New Hampshire. This is particularly annoying for Pete Buttigieg, who put all his time and money into the first race – with success: According to the current status, he gets 26.5 percent of the delegates that Iowa sends to the electoral convention in the summer; Bernie Sanders follows closely behind (25.6 percent).
Victory of the former “underdog”
Buttigieg’s prospective win is a bit of a surprise, on average of the polls he was last behind Sanders and Joe Biden. He started the campaign ten months ago as one of the “underdogs”, since his political experience was limited to governing a city with a population of 100,000. But the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, gradually worked his way through the tightly packed field of candidates, also thanks to good appearances in the television debates, and left behind politically experienced fellow campaigners. In conversation, voters praise his intelligence, his moderate positions, his authenticity – and his young age.
Assistance with the primaries in Iowa
Share of delegates won at member state level *, in percent
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Pete Buttigieg
Ex-Mayor of South Bend
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26.05%
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Bernie Sanders
Vermont Senator
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25.06%
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Elizabeth Warren
Massachusetts Senator
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03.18%
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Joe Biden
Former Vice President and Senator
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15.09%
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Amy Klobuchar
Minnesota Senator
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01.12%
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Buttigieg is also the first openly gay presidential candidate, and his husband Chasten accompanies him in the election campaign. He is also the only war veteran in the top field of democratic candidates. His campaign team had been betting on Iowa; he could have used the spotlight there to move into the next difficult battles with tailwinds: Sanders has a home advantage in New Hampshire, Buttigieg is behind in Nevada and South Carolina with high Hispanic and African-American populations.
The second winner of Iowa is undoubtedly Sanders, who has received the majority of the votes as of now. This key figure is irrelevant in the indirect primary voting procedure, but it reflects Sander’s popularity in the grassroots. The 78-year-old could hardly be more different from Buttigieg: he is more than twice as old, stands far to the left and is irreconcilable in tone. While Buttigieg’s supporters are mixed up in old age, it is mainly young voters, many of them students in their early 20s, that form the basis for Sanders. In an interview, his fans praise the consistency with which “Bernie” has been fighting for his beliefs for decades.
Sanders and his followers defend their beliefs with a radicalism reminiscent of those of Donald Trump’s followers, and show little forgiveness. This is also evident from Sanders’ campaign events. «We take on the entire establishment, the republican as well as the democratic! With the military! With the pharmaceutical industry! And with the damn one percent! », Sanders called Saturday evening to his followers in Cedar Rapids; they answered with euphoric cheers.
Sanders senses conspiracy
The revolutionary spirit of the Sanders camp is fueled by sensing a conspiracy by the leadership of the Democratic Party that Sanders wants to deprive of the nomination. In fact, later leaked emails showed that the Democratic National Committee clearly preferred Hillary Clinton in 2016. The current debacle over the results from Iowa confirms some Sanders fans in this conspiracy theory.
According to media reports Some Democrats like John Kerry are actually currently concerned that the self-proclaimed Vermont socialist – who until recently was non-party – could hijack their party; similar to what the Republicans had experienced with Trump in 2016. They fear that Sanders’ radical positions would be an election gift to Trump.
The democratic party establishment cannot trust Biden as a savior: the 77-year-old did significantly worse in Iowa than the average poll there had foreseen and the party leadership had wished for. According to previous results, he ended up in fourth place with 15.9 percent, behind Elizabeth Warren (18.3 percent). Similar to the Republicans in 2016, the democratic grass-roots establishment candidates seem increasingly to reject. Moderate Democrats, on the other hand, seem to value the fresh wind that a politically inexperienced Buttigieg brings with him more than the expertise of the former Senator and Vice President Biden.
This is also reflected in his finances: Even before the bad result in Iowa, Biden received fewer donations than many of his colleagues. South Carolina, which votes in late February, is likely to be fateful. Biden will need the support of African-American voters there more than ever if he wants to maintain his application.
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