What Did — And Didn’t — Go Down In The Iowa Caucuses

Watching CNN, I suppose I didn’t realize how much they’d lean in to state delegate equivalents as opposed to the other metrics. I don’t necessarily think it deserves to be put on a pedestal.

It’s kind of amazing to me that the numbers shifted that much. At the precinct I was observing, the Yang/Buttigieg supporters were the biggest nonviable groups, and they basically refused to leave their corners, which meant the two viable groups (Warren/Sanders) didn’t grow that much. But clearly that’s not what was happening in other precincts, at least according to this partial data.

If this holds up and four candidates win more than 15 percent of state delegate equivalents — which is the traditional measure in Iowa, so it’s useful for historical comparisons — this would be the first time that four candidates won at least 15 percent in the Iowa caucuses. Buttigieg 27 percent, Sanders 25 percent, Warren 18 percent, Biden 16 percent, Klobuchar 13 percent.