Billionaire Democratic candidate Michael Bloomberg's millions are finally paying off. The media mogul won four of American Samoa's six pledged delegates on Super Tuesday, according to multiple reports. Democratic candidate Tulsi Gabbard, who was born on the island, appears to have picked up a single delegate. Gabbard's win of a single pledged delegate may be enough to qualify her for upcoming Democratic debates, barring a rule change from the DNC. Gabbard has failed to qualify for the last five Democratic debates.
American Samoa will not participate in the electoral college this November due to its status as a territory. But the territory does caucus as part of the primary process. American Samoa is reportedly the only place Micahel Bloomberg didn't visit in the lead up to Super Tuesday. American Samoan chief Fa'alagigi Nina Tua'au-Gluade endorsed Bloomberg on Monday.
The former New York City mayor has spent around a half-billion dollars on a campaign strategy focused solely on Super Tuesday when over a third of the pledged delegates are up for grabs. The candidate ignored the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. But hundreds of millions of dollars and a poor debate performance later, Bloomberg's efforts to position himself as the moderate alternative to Bernie Sanders is running up against Joe Biden's resurgence, following the former veep's win in South Carolina.
Earlier this week, Bloomberg lowered expectations going into Super Tuesday. "Keep in mind, you don’t have to win states. You have to win delegates," Bloomberg said during a Fox News town hall on Monday. "And if you came in second in every state, you might even have a plurality -- probably not a majority. The most likely scenario for the Democratic Party is that nobody has a majority and then it goes to a convention where there’s horse-trading ... it doesn’t even have to be one of the two leading candidates. It could be somebody that had only a small number of delegates."
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