One of the biggest moments of the 2020 election thus far has come from one of America’s tiniest places.
This week contained Super Tuesday on, well, Tuesday, and the plethora of primary polling that comes along with that. This massive divvying of the delegates is often seen as the second last chance after the Iowa Caucuses for candidates who aren’t quite sure if they belong in the race or not.
Today, it’s extremely clear that there are but two men left in the race: Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Anyone else who remains eligible does so at the risk of being blamed for a healthy dose of vote-siphoning.
Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who has spent over $500 million of his own personal fortune on his campaign, saw the writing on the wall this week and took a bow; but not before actually winning a primary.
What does more than $500 million get you? For Mike Bloomberg, it was 175 winning votes in this U.S. territory — a group of Pacific islands with lush vegetation and stunning coastlines some 7,200 miles from where he once served as New York City’s mayor.
Bloomberg’s lone primary victory in American Samoa, population 55,000, was an unorthodox and inauspicious culmination to a much-hyped but short-lived Democratic presidential campaign marked by unprecedented spending designed to make a splash in Super Tuesday states.
In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, he did it.
Bloomberg on Tuesday won half of the 351 Democrats voting in the American Samoa caucus, picking up five delegates before he dropped out of the race and endorsed Joe Biden on Wednesday.
Tulsi Gabbard, another Democratic candidate whose campaign is widely considered a waste at this point, also picked up her first delegate in American Samoa.
