The results of the Iowa Caucuses held Monday were still not known due to technological glitches in gathering the vote count.
The first primary leading up to this summer's conventions used a brand new app to assist in the vote count but caucus managers had difficulty using the app delaying the results.
The state Democratic Party denied any issues with the app, pinning delays instead on "inconsistencies" in precinct reporting. Democratic candidates, competing for 41 pledged delegates in nearly 1,700 caucus locations across the state, began to address the delays late Monday.
Candidates gave their speeches to their supporters without knowing the final outcome because they had to leave the state to move to the next battleground state, New Hampshire, which will hold its primary Feb. 11.
Bernie Sanders leads in the latest New Hampshire survey with 32% of the expected vote. Elizabeth Warren is next with 13%, according to the 7 News/ Emerson College Polling tracking poll.
Although Iowa is 91% white, the state's demographics are experiencing a change, reflecting a nationwide trend. According to MSNBC, surveys show that of the caucus goers, 3% were African American, 4% were Latino and 2% were "Other." The photos below from Instagram posts, indicate that Iowa population shift towards more diversity.
At a church being used as a polling place, Burmese Americans filled the pews.
Candidate Andrew Yang rallied his supporters before they went out to encourage voters to take part in the caucuses.
A mosque was used as a satellite caucus site by the Democrats.
With the Iowa Caucuses just days away on Feb. 3, Andrew Yang is ramping up his campaign after learning he qualified for the next presidential debate prior to the New Hampshire primary.
The candidate, who has never run for office prior to his surprising campaign, qualified for the Democrats' presidential debate being held Feb. 7 after earning 5% in two polls: a CNN Poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire and a Washington Post/ABC News poll released this past weekend. He had already met the DNC bar for the number of donors.
Yang joins six other candidates who have qualified for the debate: former Vice President Joe Biden, Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, businessman Tom Steyer and Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
Yang's participation in the New Hampshire debate will mean the Democrats won't repeat the poor optics of the January debate when only white candidates appeared onstage. Yang, Tulsi Gabbard, Deval Patrick and Cory Booker failed to meet the DNC's criteria. Julian Castro and Kamala Harris had ended their campaigns earlier.
To avoid the all-white candidates' debate, the DNC added one more way a candidate could qualify -- wining one delegate in Iowa, a feat that Yang and, perhaps, Gabbard might be able to meet.
Appearing on the conservative network Fox News last Sunday, Yang criticized the DNC for not allowing Fox sponsor one of the debates. Yang's appearance on the network, which has severely criticized the Democrats, followed his policy of reaching out to a wide spectrum of voters.
"One thing I think Democrats should do, I think we should go on FOX News and talk to the American people," Yang said. "Because how can you win an election and bring the country together if you literally won't talk to 40% or 50% of the population?"
The qualification window for the Feb. 7 debate, which will be held at Saint Anselm College outside Manchester, N.H. closes at 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 6, reports Politico.
Two more debates are scheduled for February: Feb. 19 in Las Vegas (three days before the Nevada caucuses) and Feb. 25 in Charleston, S.C. (four days before the state’s primary). Qualification rules have not yet been announced for those debates.
Kamala Harris gave an impassioned speech at Iowa's Liberty and Justice Celebration.
ANALYSIS
Kamala Harris had a very bad week. And then she had one very good night.
She delivered a fiery speech in front of the biggest audience she'll likely face in Iowa, 94 days before the state holds its caucuses.
"This is a moment where we have to be prepared to fight for the best of our country," Harris said at the 2019 Liberty and Justice Celebration on Friday (Nov. 1). "This is a moment where we need to fight for this country we love, for the rule of law, for our system of justice and for our very Democracy."
The event featured 12 of the Democratic candidates and gives them the opportunity to make a big impression on the voters who would be the first people to vote for their presidential preference.
Later in the evening, with half the audience gone after the top seven Democratic candidates had delivered their speeches, Andrew Yang gave a rousing speech of his own to his loyal and vociferous supporters.
After 18 months of running for president, Yang is now a seasoned politician despite never holding an elected position.
He talked about his most talked-about proposal of giving every adult in the US $1000 a month; a Universal Basic Incomee, or as he calls it, a Freedom Dividend by telling human stories of three of people his campaign is giving a UBC for a year.
One man bought a guitar and has returned to performing; a woman paid for her repairs to her automobile; and a 68-year old woman is going back to school.
He left a strong impression with the old political hands. He made sense. He spoke to the fears confronting the American worker although except for the UBC, he remained vague about actual solutions to the dilemma he describes.
"I am running for president because, like so many of you in this room, I'm a parent and I'm a patriot," Yang said. "I have seen the future that lies ahead for our children, and it is not something I'm willing to accept."
Hawaii's Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) did not meet the qualifications to address the audience according to Iowa's Democratic Partiy.
A spokesman for Iowa's Democratic Party told CNN on Wednesday that in order to qualify to speak at the event, candidates were required to open at least two field offices in the Hawkeye State or purchase the state party's voter file.
"To our knowledge, the congresswoman did neither of those things," Jonah Hermann, the party's spokesman, told CNN.
Among the candidates, Harris had the most at stake. The week began her lowest poll numbers hovering around 3%, lagging fundraising in the crowded candidates' field, an announcement of her campaign cutting staff, closing almost of their campaign offices in New Hampshire and bringing in her additional staffers to Iowa in what appears to be an all-out push for state where doesn't need to finish first but a strong showing is absolutely necessary for her campaign.
Harris reminded the audience of her career as a prosecutor and then used that experience to deliver a dig at Elizabeth Warren, who many believe has surpassed former Vice President Joe Biden as the frontrunner.
"I have only had one client my entire life and that is the people. Unlike others, I have never represented a corporation," Harris said, in a reference to Warren's previous work representing corporations.
She used a new campaign song and literally danced onto the stage, updated her stump talking points and delivered an impassioned speech
She reminded the Iowans what brought her to the national stage and what it meant to be California's junior Senator. It "meant taking on Jeff Sessions, taking on Bill Barr, taking on Brett Kavanaugh," Harris said, mentioning many of the Trump administration confirmation fights where she displayed her prosecutorial skills. "And Iowa, I stand before you today, for the people, fully prepared to take on Donald Trump."
"This is a moment where we have to be prepared to fight for the best of our country," Harris said. "This is a moment where we need to fight for this country we love, for the rule of law, for our system of justice and for our very Democracy."
“Here’s the bottom line, Iowa. I do believe that when we overcome these injustices, we will unlock the promise of America and the potential of the American people,” she said. “And I do believe that this is what we want and need. That is the America I see. That is the America I believe in. That is the America I know us to be. And that is why I am running for president of the United States.”
During a fundraiser in Los Angeles, a reporter recently overheard her telling fellow Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, "I'm f*****g moving to Iowa." She won't be alone. Most of her staff will be in the Hawkeye state with the nation's first Caucus on Feb. 3.
Staff who were not let go at Harris' national headquarters in Baltimore will be joining her in Iowa. Additional staff will be coming in from New Hampshire, Nevada and California to bolster the candidate's flagging campaign.
Despite an impressive launch and an encouraging debate performance in the Democrats' first debate in June, Harris' numbers have been moving down at a steady rate.
Harris insisted Wednesday that she has always felt like an underdog in this race. Unlike other candidates, she pointed out, she had not run for president before and did not have a long donor list from which to draw. She also said she didn’t have enough money to throw $10 million of her own funds into the campaign to give herself a boost.
Although she doesn't stress it on the campaign trail, Harris, whose late mother was from India and her father is from Jamaica, has privately acknowledged that voters have never had to vote for someone who looks like her.
"I fully intend to win,” the Indian American candidate told reporters Wednesday night before speaking at a house party in Newton. “It is not going to be easy — I knew that from day one, and I made that very clear from day one.”
After the June debate, Harris was polling second to frontrunner former Vice President Joe Biden. In the newest national poll released by USA Today/Suffolk on Wednesday, Harris garnered only 3% of support.
It's unfortunate that Harris has had to put all her chips in Iowa. Iowa and New Hampshire are among the least racially diverse states in the nation. A strong third place finish would actually be a victory for a woman of color. She needs to do well in one of those two states before Nevada with an influential and active Asian American electorate; followed by South Carolina where African American voters will likely swing the state towards Biden.
But that won't be easy. According to the latest survey in Iowa, Harris is polling at only 3%, far below the four white candidates -- Joe Biden, 18%; Elizabeth Warren, 17%; Pete Buttigeig, 13%; Bernie Sanders, 9% -- and just a step ahead of Amy Klobuchar, Tulsi Gabbard, Andrew Yang and Cory Booker.
Even in her home state of California, Harris numbers fell from 19% in July to 8% in the new poll by Public Policy Institute, behind Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts (23%), former Vice President Joe Biden (22%) and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont (21%) are now tied as the leaders in the field among the state's likely voters.
So far, Biden, Warren, Sanders, Buttigieg, Harris, and Yang have qualified for November’s debate, as have Senators Klobuchar and Booker, and billionaire businessman Tom Steyer. Gabbard, former Texas representative Beto O’Rourke and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro have reached the donor threshold but have not yet amassed enough polls to qualify.
After the USA Today poll numbers came out, Harris tweeted, “Nothing worth fighting for is easy. Making history isn’t easy. Defending justice isn’t easy. We do it because it matters—and we intend to win.”
