The Latest: Iowa Dems approve recanvass request for caucuses

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the 2020 presidential primary campaign (all times local):

2:15 p.m.

The Iowa Democratic Party has approved requests from Pete Buttigieg's and Bernie Sanders' presidential campaigns for a partial recanvass of the Iowa caucus results.

The party says it expects the recanvass of more than 80 precincts to begin on Sunday and last two days. A recanvass is not a recount, but a check of the vote count against paper records created by caucus leaders to ensure the counts were reported accurately.

The latest caucus results give Buttigieg a lead over Sanders of two state delegate equivalents out of 2,152 counted, or 0.09 percentage points, but The Associated Press has decided that it remains unable to declare a winner based on the available information.

The caucuses were upended by significant issues in collecting and reporting data from individual precincts on caucus night. There were also errors in the complicated mathematical equations used to calculate the results in individual caucus sites that became evident as the party began to release caucus data.

The party has said it will not change mistakes in the math and the only opportunity to correct it would be a recount, which would be the candidates' next option after the recanvass is completed.

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12:55 p.m.

Joe Biden's top campaign officials are arguing that nothing was settled in the overwhelmingly white states of Iowa and New Hampshire because the Democratic Party's non-white base has yet to vote.

They insisted Wednesday that diverse electorates in Nevada and South Carolina can resurrect the former vice president's campaign after fourth- and fifth-place finishes.

Senior Biden campaign adviser Symone Sanders says Democrats won't declare a winner of this nomination “without hearing from black voters and Latino voters.”

Biden is not campaigning publicly Wednesday. He'll be in New York for media interviews and fundraisers Thursday before a three-day swing in Nevada, whose caucuses are Feb. 22. South Carolina's primary follows on Feb. 29.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won New Hampshire’s presidential primary Tuesday, edging former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

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12:10 p.m.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has ended his 2020 campaign after his late bid failed to catch fire or resonate with voters.

He was the last remaining African American candidate in a Democratic presidential field once defined by its diversity.

Patrick said in a statement Wednesday: “The vote in New Hampshire last night was not enough for us to create the practical win at the campaign’s back to go on to the next round of voting.”

Patrick came in second-to-last in New Hampshire on Tuesday with just over 1,200 votes, after ignoring Iowa and focusing most of his time and resources on the first primary.

His decision leaves just one other candidate of color, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Samoan American, in the Democratic contest. It brings the number of Democrats in the presidential primary race to eight.

Patrick launched his bid for president in mid-November but failed to register in polling and fundraising and never made it onto a presidential debate stage.

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8:40 a.m.

Georgia congresswoman Lucy McBath has endorsed former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg for president.

McBath cites Bloomberg's “unmatched record in gun violence prevention."

McBath's 17-year-old son, Jordan Davis, was shot to death in 2012 following an argument at a gas station in Florida over loud music. The shooting drew a spotlight on “stand-your-ground" laws. The shooter was a 45-year-old man named Michael Dunn, who claimed he'd done it in self-defense but was convicted of attempted murder.

McBath says in a statement issued Wednesday she met Bloomberg when she was looking for ways to fight against “dangerous gun laws that ripped" her son from her life.

McBath ran for Congress following her son's death and was elected in 2018. She became the first Democrat elected to her seat since 1979.

Bloomberg has been aggressively courting black voters. His effort has taken him across Southern states that vote on Super Tuesday.

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