Clinton Takes Iowa, Narrowly Beating Sanders' Strong Challenge
DES MOINES, Iowa (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Hillary Clinton narrowly won the Democratic caucuses in Iowa, outpacing a surprisingly strong challenge from Bernie Sanders to claim the first victory in the 2016 race for president.
The former secretary of state, senator from New York and first lady edged past the Vermont senator in a race the Iowa Democratic Party called the closest in its caucus history.
"I'm so thrilled that I am coming to New Hampshire after winning Iowa," Clinton said.
The Iowa Democratic Party said Tuesday that it would not do any recount of the close results and a spokesman for the Sanders campaign said it does not intend to challenge the results of the caucuses.
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Clinton's victory means she will collect 23 delegates and Sanders will win 21.
Even though Clinton won, CBS News contributor Bob Schieffer does not consider it a victory for the former secretary of state.
"Bernie Sanders, an avowed socialist who has never sought office as a Democrat, gave her a real run. This is not a victory for Hillary Clinton," Schieffer said.
With her advantage in superdelegates, the party officials who can support the candidate of their choice, Clinton now has a total of 385 delegates. Sanders has 29.
It takes 2,382 delegates to win the Democratic nomination for president.
Monday night, Sanders called the results a "virtual tie" and said his razor-thin contest against Clinton was giving his campaign a "kick-start.''
"We astounded the world and now in New Hampshire, we will astound the world again," Sanders said.
The race between Clinton and Sanders was so close that Democrats flipped coins in some precincts to determine how to award an extra county delegate, a rare but longstanding procedure to break ties.
Party rules call for a coin flip when support for candidates is even but a precinct has an odd number of delegates to award.
The Des Moines Register reports that Clinton won coin tosses at precincts in Davenport and Des Moines.
The newspaper said party officials ordered another coin flip to decide a dispute between the campaigns at an Ames precinct. Clinton won that toss, too.
Iowa Democratic Party spokesman Sam Lau noted that the flips were to determine county convention delegates, which are only fractions of the state delegates awarded to candidates.
Both candidates addressed their supporters late Monday night as the numbers were still being counted.
"As I stand here tonight breathing a big sigh of relief," Clinton told the crowd. "Thank you Iowa."
"We are going to create an economy that works for working families not just for the billionaire class," Sanders said.
On the Republican side, turnout in Iowa shattered records as voters handed victory to Ted Cruz over Donald Trump.
"Tonight is a victory for grassroots," Cruz told supports Monday night. "Tonight is a victory for courageous conservatives across Iowa and across this great nation."
"We finished second and I want to tell you something, I'm just honored," said Trump.
Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday claiming the media did not cover his second-place finish fairly.
"The media has not covered my long-shot great finish in Iowa fairly. Brought in record voters and got second highest vote total in history!" Trump tweeted.
Trump is hoping to get another boost to his campaign, as former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown is endorsing the billionaire.
All eyes are now on Marco Rubio,who pulled away with a third place finish only trailing Trump by 1 percent.
"I can grow the conservative movement," Rubio said. "I can take our message to people who have not voted for us before."
Cruz's victory in the Iowa means he'll collect eight delegates to the Republican National Convention. Trump and Rubio each get seven. Coming next is Ben Carson with three, followed by Rand Paul and Jeb Bush at one each.
Delegates are awarded in proportion to the statewide vote. There are three delegates still to be awarded.
Martin O'Malley dropped out of the Democratic race Monday night while Mike Huckabee left the Republican race.
Other underperformers like Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and John Kasich are banking instead on strong showings in New Hampshire's Feb. 9 primary to jumpstart their White House bids.
Christie, who finished 10th in the Iowa caucus, took a shot at Rubio.
"It's time for him to man up and step up and stop letting his handlers write his speeches," Christie said.
New Hampshire holds its primary next Tuesday.
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