Fresh off a raucous debate this week that saw candidates ruthlessly attack one another, the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are hoping to convince a plurality of Nevada voters to support their campaigns during Saturday’s caucuses. PJ Media, in partnership with Decision Desk HQ, will bring you live results just as soon as they’re available, so stay right here.
Early voting actually began four days ago with ranked-choice ballots that will be incorporated into vote totals on Saturday. At play in the closed primary are 48 delegates—36 pledged plus 12 superdelegates—that will be awarded proportionally.
Nevada was originally planning to use the reporting app that failed so badly in Iowa, but after that crashed and burned, decided to use a Google Form instead, with results submitted via iPads. As with Iowa, the plan is to release the first alignment, followed later by the final alignment. We’ll have to wait and see if all that works out.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is thought to be the frontrunner in the third contest of the primary season. The forecasters at FiveThirtyEight give Sanders an 85% chance of winning the most votes on Saturday. The RCP Average has Sanders at 32.5% in Nevada, followed by former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former Vice President Joe Biden (tied at 16%), and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 14%. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and environmental activist Tom Steyer are polling in single digits, at 9.5% and 9% respectively. That said, polls in Nevada have been notoriously unreliable, so anything can happen.
The Nevada GOP voted last year to cancel the 2020 caucuses, so Bill Weld, the only Republican left standing against President Trump, will have to wait for another state.
After the first two primaries, Buttigieg leads the delegate count with 22, followed by Sanders (21), Warren (8), Klobuchar (7), and Biden (6). There’s still a long way to go in the race for the nomination and if the field remains as crowded and divided as it is today, Democrats could be headed to a brokered convention in Milwaukee in July.
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