Bernie Sanders Leads In Early Returns In Nevada Caucuses



Bernie Sanders held a significant lead in the Nevada caucuses on Saturday, accelerating his momentum in the race for the Democratic nomination against splintered support for his rivals.

Lagging well behind in early returns were Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, although they were just about the 15% threshold to garner delegates from the state.

Entrance polls showed Sanders doing particularly well with Hispanic voters and young voters, but he also led among white voters and even among voters who call themselves moderate or conservative, according to MSNBC. An CNN exit poll showed Sanders, the oldest candidate in the race, getting an even greater percentage of younger voters — almost seven out of ten.

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On the Las Vegas Strip, Sanders won caucuses at the Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, Rio and Wynn hotels, according to Las Vegas Independent editor Jon Ralston, significant given that the union that represents many hotel workers, the Culinary Workers Union, refused to endorse in the race.

At a rally in El Paso, Texas before the results came in, Sanders initially gave a message of unity that focused on defeating President Donald Trump.

“When I look out at this audience, I have absolute confidence that we can create a government that is based on compassion, is based on love, is based on truth, not what we have now of greed corruption and lies,” Sanders told the crowd. MSNBC carried much of his speech, while the other news networks covered other aspects of the caucus. The Sanders campaign in recent weeks has complained about the tenor of MSNBC’s coverage.

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Sanders campaign has drawn larger and enthusiastic crowds in the early states, as well as an army of celebrity supporters young and old. On Friday, the campaign sent out a video endorsement from 94-year-old Dick Van Dyke, who also campaigned for him in 2016.

But his potential nomination has stirred up a great deal of angst in the Democratic establishment, as well as a number of entertainment industry donors who fear an electoral meltdown by running a democratic socialist at the top of the ticket.

James Carville, who has warned Democrats of nominating Sanders. He said that it was foolish to believe that Sanders can greatly expand the electorate by reaching new voters.

“When people say that, they are as stupid to a political scientist as a climate denier is to an atmospheric scientist,” he said.

Carville added, “We’re in a whole new ballgame here, and this game could end a little after mid March, and some of these candidates are going to have to make some really hard decisions about who stays in and who gets out and where we go from here,” he said.

The South Carolina primary is Feb. 29, but three days later is Super Tuesday, when California and 13 other states go to the polls. More than one-third of delegates will be picked on March 3.

Fox News made an early projection that Sanders would win the caucuses, based on a determination of its decision desk. Mercedes Schlapp, a former White House official working on Trump’s reelection campaign, said that the results were further evidence that the Democrats were in disarray and would have a brokered convention.

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In contrast to Iowa, where a software glitch delayed the results until later in the week, Nevada’s returns began to come in pretty soon after sites wrapped up their vote counting.

But there were still plenty of complaints about the confusing nature of the process. MSNBC even had “spotters,” those fanned out at caucus sites, to gather results on their own. The network reported on a Reno caucus site that broke a tie by doing a card draw.

“It is an antiquated system, it is not fair and it needs to stop,” a woman supporter of Amy Klobuchar told MSNBC at a Henderson caucus site, where there was some disarray about the process.

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