Joe Biden is the Democratic Party’s nominee. That’s not shocking. Donald Trump delivering a beatdown to Nikki Haley nationwide is also not an unsurprising development on Super Tuesday. But Joe Biden losing a contested primary contest was not on anyone’s political bingo card. It’s not a state. Biden lost in American Samoa to Jason Palmer—who the hell is that—who got 51 votes over the president’s 40. Yeah, only 91 people voted over there (via The Hill):
According to results provided by the Democratic Party in American Samoa, Jason Palmer has won the American Samoa Democratic Caucus.
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) March 6, 2024
Follow results here: https://t.co/EN1rgvRznL pic.twitter.com/N5DFS3IJNn
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) March 6, 2024
The polling is bad for Biden right now. Not irredeemably bad. It's March and it's close-ish and polls can be wrong. But he's losing now according to a broad consensus of national and swing state polls. Plus his approval ratings are in the mid-high 30s.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) March 4, 2024
Joe Biden just lost a primary election to a man nobody heard of until a minute ago pic.twitter.com/8vNT3w6p79
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 6, 2024
Democrat Jason Palmer, a entrepreneur running a long-shot bid against the incumbent, was projected to win the U.S. territory’s Democratic race.
Palmer has reportedly qualified for the presidential ballot in just 16 states and territories, according to a release from the campaign through PRNewswire.
Since American Samoa is a U.S. territory, it doesn’t have electoral votes in the general election — but it can still send 11 delegates to the Democratic National Convention (DNC) later this year. DDHQ estimates that so far Palmer has won 4 delegates and Biden 2.
Democrat Michael Bloomberg came out on top in the party’s 2020 presidential primary in American Samoa, while then-candidate Biden got single-digit support.
It's odd, but Joe isn’t well-liked over there. He’s also not popular stateside either.
Jason Palmer rolled American Samoa by telling them he's actually really popular over here. pic.twitter.com/6gOSEg3ZhC
— Kate Hyde (@KateHydeNY) March 6, 2024
Biden is the first incumbent president to lose a presidential primary since 1980 https://t.co/zWSYdsi7Se
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) March 6, 2024