2016 Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses
The 2016 Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses were held on Monday February 1 in Iowa, as usual marking the Democratic Party's first nominating contest in their series of presidential primaries ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
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51 Democratic National Convention delegates (44 pledged, 7 unpledged) | |||||||||||||||||||
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Iowa results by county (state delegate equivalents)
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| Elections in Iowa |
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The Republican Party held its own Iowa caucuses on the same day.
Despite a close challenge, Hillary Clinton was able to defeat Bernie Sanders in the first-in-the-nation Iowa Caucus by the closest margin in the history of the contest: 49.8% to 49.6% (Clinton collected 700.47 state delegate equivalents to Sanders' 696.92, a difference of one quarter of a percentage point). The victory, which was projected to award her 23 pledged national convention delegates (two more than Sanders), made Clinton the first woman to win the Caucus and marked a clear difference from 2008, where she finished in third place behind Obama and John Edwards. Martin O'Malley suspended his campaign after a disappointing third-place finish with only 0.5% of the state delegate equivalents awarded, leaving Clinton and Sanders the only two major candidates in the race. 171,517 people participated in the 2016 Iowa Democratic caucuses.