'Better Later Than Never:' Pete Buttigieg Leads in Iowa Caucuses, Rallies in New Hampshire

Pete Buttigieg led in the Iowa caucuses in initial results, cementing his status as a credible contender after an extraordinary rise from the little-known mayor of a small Indiana city to the top tier of the presidential race. #PeteButtigieg #IowaCaucuses

With 62% of precincts reporting, Bernie Sanders was a close second.

The results were a major setback for Joe Biden, who was in fourth place behind Elizabeth Warren.

On Monday night, the caucuses that were meant to give shape to the Democratic presidential race devolved into a political embarrassment for the party and left candidates and voters hanging with no results and no springboard into the next round of contests, including New Hampshire’s primary in seven days.

The chaos in Iowa began when an attempt to modernize the arcane caucus system and make it more transparent melted down with the introduction of new technology and more complex rules. The Iowa Democratic Party said it was unable to release results from Monday’s caucuses after discovering “inconsistencies” in reporting from some precincts.

Buttigieg’s lead in the developing Iowa vote count reflected a surprising success in a crowded field as a gay 38-year-old former mayor of a midsized Midwest city with a hard-to-pronounce name.

He plays up his youth as an asset, offering himself as a candidate for generational change. “I bring a different perspective,” Buttigieg, an Afghanistan war veteran who campaigns alongside his husband, said in a January debate in Des Moines.

The results in Iowa unrolled amid an uproar over the delayed vote count.

After virtual silence on Monday night, the state party said Tuesday morning that it had identified a flaw in the phone application used to report results that led to the failed vote tabulation.