MANCHESTER, NH — Sen. Bernie Sanders claimed victory in the Iowa Caucuses Thursday saying now that 97 percent of the precincts have reported his campaign was winning the popular initial vote by some 6,000 votes.
In addition, Sanders said he gained another 2,500 votes due to the realignment process, where voters can vote for another candidate because their first choice garnered less than 15 percent of the vote.
Sanders, in an afternoon news conference at his Hamel Drive headquarters, said he wanted to thank the people of Iowa — even though it is “three days late” — for their very strong victory.
“With eight strong candidates competing, a victory margin of some 6,000 votes is pretty decisive,” Sanders said. “And the reason that happened is because of the unprecedented grassroots effort of our volunteers.”
According to Sanders, thousands of volunteers “knocked on hundreds of thousands of doors” through rain, snow and freezing temperatures and he wanted to take the time to thank them for their extraordinary efforts, “which made our victory possible”.
Sanders also thanked the “thousands of volunteers here in New Hampshire who are out today in rain and snow knocking on doors, making the phone calls that have to be made and using social media in order to help us win here. ”
That unprecedented grassroots group of folks is what’s needed to defeat President Trump, he said.
“Our campaign is the campaign that I believe is putting together a multigenerational, multi-racial process in which we are bringing people together around an agenda that is speaking to the working families in this country,” he said.
That agenda will take on the millionaires and the billionaires, battle income inequality and raise wages for working families. It will “guarantee healthcare for all people as a human right,” he said just like so many other countries do for their people.
Sanders said he was confident about doing well in the Granite State and about winning Iowa.
“Bottom line, I believe that we are well-positioned to win the Democratic nomination and to defeat the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country,” he said.