The Factors of the New Two Primary Races 

By: Dejon Virgo

Biden and Sanders shaking hands and laughing after a debate. Credit: Bostonherald.com

The New Hampshire primary showed a very tight race at the top with Bernie Sanders winning the state and Pete Buttigieg right behind him. Buttigieg was able to get the most pledged delegates from the Iowa Caucuses – 14 with Sanders getting 12 and in New Hampshire both receiving 9. 

This was the state of the Democratic primary up until Nevada and the real test of minority support was about to be tested with the majority white voters of Iowa and New Hampshire not representing the whole Democratic base. 

Sanders was poised to win the state in the following days leading up to the caucuses, with him doing very well with Latino voters and having the best organization on the ground. 

Joe Biden was seen as someone who could do better in the state than the two previous states because Biden tends to do better with minority voters. 

There were also questions about whether candidates like Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and Buttigieg could do well in a state that doesn’t have a large white educated population. The results came in with 4% of the precincts reporting Sanders as the winner.

He won more than anyone could have imagined, receiving more than almost all the other candidates put together. 

The win was expected because Sanders was leading in the polls leading up to the caucuses but the question was by how much. The media expected it to be a close result with Sanders leading but the power of grassroots wins the day. 

Biden came in second with Buttigieg in third, Warren in fourth, and Klobuchar in fifth. The results were better for Biden because not only did he come in second, but he won the most black votes and moderates with Sanders winning in every other group. 

Biden winning the African American vote in Nevada was a predictor of what was going to come in the future when the race headed to South Carolina. Biden was leading in the polls ever since he entered the race last April. 

In recent months, he was sliding in the polls especially after the Nevada caucuses while he was still in first in the polls, his lead would get smaller and smaller. 

Biden placed fourth in Iowa, fifth in New Hampshire, and second in Nevada so his campaign needed not just a win in South Carolina, but a blow out to relive his campaign going into Super Tuesday in the following days. 

Biden had a lot of support in the state because of his support from the African American community that dominates the Democratic base in that state.

Biden has this support because older African Americans are more moderate and they feel like they know him, and not to mention he was the Vice President of the first African American president, Barack Obama. 

This gave Biden the trust of the black community, especially after the endorsement of Representative Jim Clyburn, the most prominent African American in the state and a civil rights advocate since the 60s. 

After the endorsement Biden gained a lot of the voters who were unsure going into the primary and that helped him a lot again. 

The polls closed on primary day and almost immediately the race was called for Biden. He won every county in the state and had that blowout that his campaign was hoping for. 

The results helped Biden with the media attention that he needed going into Super Tuesday, which was the biggest day of the primary because a third of the delegates are up for grabs.