Former mayor Pete Buttigieg is surging into contention in next week’s New Hampshire Democratic primary after his surprise strong performance in Iowa.
A new poll shows 38-year-old Mr Buttigieg has jumped eight points to 19 per cent support in New Hampshire since this week’s Iowa caucus, leapfrogging his rivals to be second only to the frontrunner in that state, Bernie Sanders with 25 per cent.
The news came as Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez called for an immediate recanvass of the Iowa result to ensure public confidence in the outcome after the vote tally was crippled by technology problems. Days after the Iowa caucus, the first Democratic presidential contest in the nation, a formal winner has still not been announced, with 97 per cent of the vote counted.
Even so, Senator Sanders claimed victory in Iowa on Friday (AEDT) despite Mr Buttigieg still clinging to a lead of 26.2 per cent to 26.1 per cent for Senator Sanders in state delegate equivalents, the traditional measure of who wins the state. But Senator Sanders claimed victory because he had 6000 more votes across the state.