This story was last updated at 9:30 p.m.
MILFORD, N.H. — Sen. Bernie Sanders attempted to put the chaos of Monday night’s Iowa caucuses behind him as he drummed up support in New Hampshire ahead of the first-in-the-nation-primary Tuesday.
Hours after the Iowa Democratic Party released partial results that had Sanders in second place in the caucuses, Sanders poked fun at the unusual situation while touting his strong showing.
“For some reason in Iowa they’re having a little bit of trouble counting votes,” Sanders said to laughs from the crowd. “But I’m confident that here in New Hampshire you know how to count your votes on election night.”
Technical issues continued to delay the full results from the first electoral contest of the 2020 primary as of Tuesday night. With results from roughly two-thirds of Iowa precincts, Sanders had 25.1% of the vote, trailing behind former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who had 26.9%.
With 62% of precincts reporting, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was in third place at 18.3%. Former Vice President Joe Biden, with 15.6%, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., with 12.6%, trailed her.
It is not clear when full results will be available. The delay in reporting the vote count has been blamed on software used to tabulate the results. Party officials have denied any impropriety or fraud.
However, despite the opacity out of Iowa, supporters who came to hear the Vermont senator in New Hampshire said the confusion has not dampened his momentum or their excitement.
“Last night was obviously unfortunate all round, but in the long run I think the outlook is good for Bernie, as he’s top two there, I think he is going to have a pretty strong lead in New Hampshire, so he should be good going into Nevada and South Carolina,” said Brian Blood, a young, heavily bearded Sanders supporter.
“If anything it is kind of reinvigorating, after Iowa, to see everything that happened to not forget that Bernie needs a lot of people motivated to win,” he added.
Over the last month, Sanders has surged in the polls — gaining more than double the support of his closest rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, in some surveys — to be the clear frontrunner in New Hampshire.
Alaina Stamatis, another young Sanders supporter, said that after Iowa, she and others are planning on a strong effort in the last week before the New Hampshire primary to ensure a Sanders victory — which she is confident will be the result.
“There’s a big push to knock doors for him, but in a lot of ways New Hampshire has been seen as in the bag,” she said.
“We know he is going to come in first in New Hampshire,” said Stamatis.
Sanders is maintaining a busy campaign schedule through a blockbuster week of political events; he was on the trail Tuesday instead of attending President Donald Trump’s State of the Union. But Wednesday he has only one morning event before he will return to Washington, D.C., to vote in the impeachment trial.
“I fly back to Washington to cast a vote for the impeachment of Donald J. Trump,” Sanders told the New Hampshire crowd. “And I do that without any joy in my heart. This is not a happy moment for anybody no matter what your political views may be.”
But Sanders quickly pivoted away from impeachment back to his presidential campaign and his belief that he can win the White House in 2020.
“The votes may not be there to impeach Trump, but I am absolutely confident that in November, the votes will be there to defeat Trump,” Sanders bellowed to cheers from the crowd, as one spectator shouted that he would not be able to beat the incumbent president.
Sanders had traveled to New Hampshire from Iowa early in the afternoon, telling reporters on the flight he was disappointed the Iowa Democratic Party was unable to produce timely caucus results.
“This is not a good thing, I think this is not a good night for democracy,” Sanders told reporters.
Sanders also responded to Pete Buttigieg’s early claim of victory late Monday night, while the results from only 2% of precincts had been announced.
While the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor announced victory Monday, the Sanders campaign released internal numbers accounting for 40% of the vote which had the Vermont senator in the lead.
The unverified numbers have the Vermont senator narrowly beating Buttigieg to come in first in the contest.
According to the Sanders campaign’s tally, the Vermont independent claimed
28.6% of state delegate equivalents ahead of Buttigieg, 25.7% and Warren,
18.4%.
“I don’t know how anybody declares victory before you have an official statement of election results, so we’re not declaring victory,” Sanders said Tuesday afternoon.
While campaigning across New Hampshire Tuesday, Warren, Biden and Klobuchar all criticized the long delay to hear the official results from Iowa and said that releasing a partial report was unacceptable.
Biden’s camp had been tempering expectations in the runup to Iowa and was stressing that no matter how he did in the first-in-the-nation caucuses he has strong support in South Carolina that could make up for a poor showing early on.
However that support in the Southern primary, which will take place Feb. 29, seems to have eroded in recent weeks and on Sunday, the Post and Courier released a new poll showing Biden just 5 points ahead of Sanders.
Historically the Vermont independent has struggled to make inroads among the predominantly African American and more moderate Democratic base in the Southern state.
But after a number of high-profile endorsements and focusing his state campaign on voter outreach, Sanders has shot up 7 points from the Courier’s October survey and is now polling at 20%, behind only Biden’s 25%.
