UPDATE: The Iowa Democratic Party has released 71 percent of the results from all 99 precincts. Pete Buttigieg leads pledged county delegates with 26.8 percent and is followed by Bernie Sanders with 25.2 percent. Elizabeth Warren is in third with 18.4 percent. 

Bernie Sanders leads the popular vote for the state with 26.3 percent, leading Buttigieg’s 25.1 percent. 

 As of now Buttigieg and Sanders have received 11 state delegates each, Warren has gotten five.  No other candidates have earned state delegates yet. There are 41 delegates up to grab making up roughly one percent of the total delegates in the 2020 Democratic Primary.

The results of the Iowa Caucus were delayed Monday night reportedly due to “inconsistencies” and the state’s new app. The problems arose after a newly introduced app, which was to be used to report precinct results quicker, failed because of “coding issue.”

Bernie Sanders’ campaign has released their own polling of 40% of precincts showing them winning 29.6%, the most any candidate had gotten. 

“When those results are announced, I have a feeling that we’re going to be doing very, very well here in Iowa,” Senator Sanders said.

Pete Buttigieg’s campaign has claimed victory, however the numbers he released for his and only his results seems to back up Sanders’ results of winning.  This comes off the back of controversy surrounding his campaign’s connection to the failed app and then Ben Halle, Buttigieg’s comms director tweeted out an image that showed his login to the app, meaning anyone could send in fraudulent results.

Joe Biden’s campaign seems to be dissatisfied. 

“Things aren’t going well,” a Biden campaign staffer was quoted saying.

A caucus is a form of ranked voting where supporters all go to a venue, such as a church or school. Once there, supporters go to various areas in their room designated for each candidate. After the first round of voting, each candidate below 15% is eliminated, and those voting for them can either go to a different campaign or abstain from voting.

The reason that the Iowa Caucus is of greater importance is because of electability, being the first primary in the election makes it the place where the candidates set their stage for the remaining primaries.

The Caucus itself is viewed by many as a litmus test for if a candidate can get people to rally behind them, and many in states after Iowa view it as important to the overall. Past winners include John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008. Hillary Clinton beat Bernie Sanders by 0.3% in 2016. 

Super Tuesday is March 3, and Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Democrats Abroad, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia will hold their primaries.

The Pennsylvania Democratic Primary will be held Tuesday, April 28. 

This year’s primary is expected to be important, as Pennsylvania could be a state that avoids a contested convention at the Democratic National Convention.  A contested convention is when a candidate doesn’t win a majority of delegates, which results in the super delegates being brought in.  

Recently, Politico reported that Democratic National Committee (DNC) insiders were hoping for a contested convention to stop Bernie Sanders from getting the nomination, meaning he would need to win a majority of delegates. 

Because of this possibility, especially with so many candidates in the race, every delegate counts, and a win in Pennsylvania carries the potential to make or break the primary. 

At the time of publication, the results had still not been released.