American Samoa Democratic Caucuses 2020: Bernie Sanders leads with Joe Biden in second place
American Samoa, which has been a US territory since 1900, doesn’t take part in the presidential election but does in the caucuses. The Democratic Caucuses in AS was being held on Super Tuesday (March 3) while the Republican Caucuses will be held on March 24. While people born in other American territories are given citizenship at birth, AS doesn’t offer the same.
Caucus dates:
Democrats: March 3, 2020; Republicans: March 24, 2020
Type: Open
Democratic delegates: 11 (six pledged, five super)
Republican delegates: 9
Governor:
Lol Matalasi Moliga (Democratic)
‘At-large’ representative:
Aumua Amata (Republican)
2016 Democratic Caucuses result in American Samoa:
Hillary Clinton won 68.4 percent of the votes while her opponent Bernie Sanders got 25.7 percent in the 2016 Democratic Caucuses in American Samoa. Hillary bagged eight of the delegates as against her opponent’s three. In the 2008 caucuses too, Hillary beat former president Barack Obama by around 15 percent.
2016 Republican Caucuses result:
Donald Trump won all the nine delegates in the US territory. The Republican delegates were unbound that year but decided to back Trump ahead of the national convention.
According to FiveThirtyEight, Sanders was leading in AS with 40 percent votes while Joe Biden was second at 27 percent and Michael Bloomberg next at 20 percent. The former New York City mayor was on Monday, March 2, endorsed by Samoan chief American Samoan chief Fa’alagiga Nina Tua’au-Glaude. The chief, who was a delegate for Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Covention, said he believed in the billionaire candidate's "message of change for the people of American Samoa". The Super Tuesday contests will be the first for Bloomberg this primary season. The Democratic field witnessed a major shrink following Biden's win in the South Carolina Primary as Tom Steyer, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar quit the field.