Former US Vice President Joe Biden has pledged to campaign harder after partial results of the Iowa caucus put him in fourth place to be the Democratic candidate for this year’s presidential election, behind Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warner.
"I am not going to sugarcoat it: We took a gut punch in Iowa,” Mr Biden said.
“The whole process was a gut punch.”
The political veteran had led national polls heading into the caucus, with Mr Biden’s campaign driven by celebrity endorsements and marketing himself as the ideal candidate to take on Republican President Donald Trump.
Joe Biden (L), alongside his wife Jill Biden (R), greets supporters during his Iowa caucus night watch party in Des Moines, Iowa, 3 February 2020. Source: AAP
‘I’m not going anywhere’
Seventy-five per cent of the vote has now been counted, with the results of the caucus heavily delayed due to multiple technical malfunctions on a new voting app which had been designed to speed up the process.
The partial results have Biden on 15.6 per cent, Elizabeth Warren with 18.2 per cent, Bernie Sander’s second with 25.2 per cent and to the surprise of many, Pete Buttigieg in the lead with 26.9 per cent support.
Despite Mr Biden’s disappointment he was out campaigning in Somersworth, New Hampshire and used the opportunity to take aim at his fellow candidates and send them a warning, “I am not going anywhere.”
US Senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders addresses supporters during in Des Moines, Iowa. Source: EPA
“I have great respect for Mayor Pete and his service to this nation. But I do believe it’s a risk … for this party to nominate someone who has never held an office higher than mayor of a town of 100,000 people in Indiana,” he said.
‘A president focused on the future’
Mr Buttigieg’s success in the first vote has shocked many who had not considered the 38-year-old former mayor of tiny South Bend, Indiana as a viable candidate in the Democratic nomination due to his youth and inexperience in a major political role.
Youthfulness Mr Buttgieg argues makes him an ideal candidate along with his policies for a publicly run health insurance scheme, background checks for gun buyers, a path to citizenship for migrants and tackling climate change.
Pete Buttigieg and supporters in Iowa. Source: AAP
“In order to govern, in order to lead, in order to move this country forward, we need a president focused on the future and ready to leave the politics of the past in the past,” he said.
If Mr Buttigieg was to win the democratic nomination and then the November election, he would become the first openly gay president in US history, though many fear the country is not yet ready for it.
