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UPDATE: The Final Official Iowa Democrat Delegate Count, And What It Means

   DailyWire.com
Pete Buttigieg, former mayor of South Bend and 2020 presidential candidate, left, shakes hands with Former Vice President Joe Biden, as Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, second left, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, right, stand on stage ahead of the Democratic presidential debate at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S., on Friday, Feb. 7, 2020. The New Hampshire debates often mark a turning point in a presidential campaign, as the field of candidates is winnowed and voters begin to pay closer attention. Photographer: Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg
Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg via Getty Images

After nearly a week of what proved to one of the more embarrassing primary debacles in recent history, the Iowa Democratic Party has finally released what it says is are official, truly final results and has awarded its delegates accordingly. The winner, by an extremely narrow margin, was South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who edged out Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and has now officially gained a 2-delegate lead.

Iowa’s impact in terms of delegates on the Democratic primary is extremely small, the state sending only 41 pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention, which ultimately receives nearly 4,000. However, as explained by analyst Nate Silver, the state’s caucuses have a disproportionate impact on the race, as it goes a long way to helping candidates build momentum, as is the case for both Buttigieg and Sanders. Longtime frontrunner Joe Biden’s campaign, on the other hand, has been badly damaged after the former vice president came in a distant fourth.

As reported by NBC News Sunday, the Iowa Democratic Party is now officially awarding Buttigieg 14 of its 41 delegates and Sanders 12. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who came in third, is getting 8 delegates. Biden is receiving 6 delegates for his surprisingly low fourth place finish. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) managed to get one delegate, while no other candidates received a single delegate.

While the Iowa Democratic Party says it now feels confident in the proportioning of the votes, many are still viewing the results with skepticism, including NBC, which, like the Associated Press last Thursday, announced that the network “is not calling a winner in the first-in-the-nation contest, and the NBC News Decision Desk is not making any independent delegate allocations at this time.”

The Associated Press announced last Thursday that, as a result of “irregularities,” it was “unable to declare a winner in Iowa.”

“Following the Iowa Democratic Party’s release of new results late Thursday night, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg leads Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by two state delegate equivalents out of 2,152 counted. That is a margin of 0.09 percentage points,” AP reported. “However, there is evidence the party has not accurately tabulated some of its results, including those released late Thursday that the party reported as complete. The AP’s tabulation of the party’s results are at 99% of precincts reporting, with data missing from one of 1,765 precincts, among other issues.”

On Thursday, DNC Chairman Tom Perez publicly shamed the Iowa Democratic Party, demanding that it begin a complete recount and recalculation of the vote.

“Enough is enough,” Perez tweeted Thursday. “In light of the problems that have emerged in the implementation of the delegate selection plan and in order to assure public confidence in the results, I am calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately begin a recanvass.”

While the Iowa Democratic Party has declared Buttigieg the winner, Sanders appears to have gained the most from his strong performance in the state, appearing to overtake Biden as the party’s true frontrunner. The Biden campaign, meanwhile, has been scrambling to reset, shaking up the leadership and redirecting campaign funds in a “last-ditch effort” to save his candidacy, as The Washington Post put it Friday.

Related: Trump Makes Series Of Election Predictions For Democrats: Ocasio-Cortez, Schumer, Nadler

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