Buttigieg holds lead after latest Iowa precincts report

Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg held on to his lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as the Iowa Democratic Party reported the latest round of precinct-level results on Wednesday.

With 86 percent of precincts reporting, the ex-mayor of South Bend, Ind., now holds 26.7 percent of the delegate shares allocated across the state, the latest results show. Sanders is still nipping at Buttigieg’s heels with 25.4 percent.

The new results are good news for former Vice President Joe Biden, whose totals ticked up to 15.9 percent from the first results issued on Tuesday. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who finished ahead of Biden, was at 18.3 percent.

The leading candidates have long since left Iowa to stump for votes in New Hampshire, where voters cast primary ballots on Tuesday. But Buttigieg has declared himself the virtual winner, casting the Iowa results as a boost for a campaign that started at nothing a year ago.

Sanders’s camp also claimed confidence in an impending win.

“We want to thank the people of Iowa. We are gratified that in the partial data released so far it’s clear that in the first and second round more people voted for Bernie than any other candidate in the field,” said Sanders senior adviser Jeff Weaver.

Sanders won over more supporters in the first round of caucus alignments, according to the existing tallies, but a combination of geographic distribution and a realignment process that gives someone who supports a nonviable candidate a second chance to influence the process meant Buttigieg won a higher share of the delegate count released so far.

Tal Axelrod contributed to this report.

— Updated at 7:06 p.m.