GRUNDY COUNTY- After a week full of turmoil, calls for recounts and questions over the future of the Iowa caucuses, former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg has officially been confirmed as the victor in Grundy County and holds a slim statewide lead over Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont in total delegates despite trailing in the popular vote.
Buttigieg, who received 564 state delegate equivalents (SDEs) to Sanders’s 562, received 28.33 percent of the votes cast in Grundy County, and Sanders came in second locally with 21.67 percent of the votes cast. Former Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota tied for third in the county with 20 percent each, and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren finished in a distant fifth with 6.67 percent of the votes cast. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang was the only other candidate to receive any votes here on the final alignment with 1.67 percent, and the remaining 1.67 percent of voters remained uncommitted.
U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, businessman Tom Steyer, U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard and former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick did not register any support in Grundy County.
Across Iowa, Buttigieg won a total of 59 of the 99 counties (he tied in several more) and ran up his widest margins of victory in the suburbs of Des Moines while also winning more rural counties than any other candidate. Sanders, on the other hand, fared best in urban areas, college communities and counties with higher nonwhite populations, and as of the final tally, he had received about 2,000 more popular votes than Buttigieg in the state.
Of the neighboring counties, Buttigieg won by over 10 percent in Hardin while Sanders won Marshall, Black Hawk, Tama, Butler and Franklin counties. The candidates were on to New Hampshire this week, where the second primary of the 2020 cycle was held on Tuesday night.
