The Fallout From New Hampshire: This Week in the 2020 Race

Well, that was exhausting.

One and a half states down, 48.5 to go. Let’s catch you up on what happened during one of the most eventful stretches of the 2020 race so far.

That was not great news for Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who placed fourth with less than 10 percent of the vote. And the results were very bad for former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who finished fifth.

We regret to inform you that we still don’t know who won the Iowa caucuses.

Every precinct has reported its results, and they show Mr. Buttigieg with the slightest of leads over Mr. Sanders in the state delegate equivalent count. But both campaigns requested partial recanvasses this week based on irregularities and miscalculations in specific precincts, and the Iowa Democratic Party agreed to check the numbers.

If the errors Mr. Sanders’s campaign reported were all verified, he would net about six state delegate equivalents, which would move him into first place. That would earn him the one extra national delegate reserved for the statewide winner. But if the errors Mr. Buttigieg’s campaign reported were all verified, he would expand his lead over Mr. Sanders by about 14 state delegate equivalents.

As recriminations continued to fly, Troy Price, the chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, announced his resignation on Wednesday. The party will choose an interim leader this weekend.

Three candidates ended their campaigns after dismal finishes in New Hampshire: the entrepreneur Andrew Yang (2.8 percent of the vote), former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts (0.4 percent) and Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado (0.3 percent).

There are now “only” eight candidates in the Democratic race. That is a huge post-New Hampshire field by any historical standard, but compared with the 24-person free-for-all we had a few months ago, it’s luxuriously manageable.

Former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York City faced a barrage of criticism this week after two sets of old remarks resurfaced.

The first recording, which was posted on Twitter on Monday, was from a 2015 appearance Mr. Bloomberg made at the Aspen Institute. In the clip, he staunchly defended stop-and-frisk policing, a tactic that his mayoral administration used disproportionately against black men and Latinos, and that he apologized for only on the eve of his presidential campaign.

“Ninety-five percent of your murders — murderers and murder victims — fit one M.O.,” he said. “You can just take the description, Xerox it and pass it out to all the cops. They are male, minorities, 15 to 25. That’s true in New York, that’s true in virtually every city.”

Later in the week, comments surfaced from a forum Mr. Bloomberg attended in 2008. He claimed the end of redlining, a racially discriminatory housing practice, had helped cause the financial crisis.

  • Among those who condemned Mr. Bloomberg’s remarks was Ms. Warren, who told supporters on Thursday that his comments should disqualify him from becoming the Democratic nominee.

There is no doubt that Mr. Sanders is the new Democratic front-runner, as evidenced not only by his performances in Iowa and New Hampshire but also by two national polls released this week.

A Quinnipiac poll released Monday showed Mr. Sanders at 25 percent, eight points ahead of Mr. Biden — his first lead outside the margin of error in a national debate-qualifying poll. A Monmouth poll released the next day showed an even larger lead, 26 percent to 16 percent.

Monmouth had Ms. Warren and Mr. Buttigieg tied for third with 13 percent apiece, while Quinnipiac had Ms. Warren at 14 and Mr. Buttigieg at 10. Mr. Bloomberg was also in double digits in both polls — 15 percent in Quinnipiac and 11 percent in Monmouth — putting him one poll away from qualifying for next week’s debate.

Mr. Bloomberg released short plans this week on two crucial issues — immigration and reproductive rights — on which the other major candidates long ago announced their positions.

In his immigration plan, he pledged to create a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, set a target of 125,000 for refugee resettlement and end the backlog of naturalization applications. He also said he would “reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection,” but gave no details.

His reproductive rights plan calls for codifying Roe v. Wade, repealing the Hyde Amendment, and ending the domestic and global “gag rules” — all points on which the Democratic field is united. Mr. Bloomberg also said he would “encourage states” to allow the prescription of birth control through telemedicine and to authorize a wider variety of medical professionals to perform abortions.

  • Ms. Warren released an agenda for Asian-Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, which draws on a long list of her existing plans.

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