Presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg signaled victory in the Iowa Democratic caucus early Tuesday before the official results were tallied.
“By all indications, we are going on to New Hampshire victorious,” the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor told his supporters at Drake University after midnight.
Buttigieg said that with his supposed victory, “an improbable hope became an undeniable reality.”
“We don’t know all the results, but we know by the time it’s all said and done, Iowa, you have shocked the nation,” he boasted.
His winning claim came as the caucus results were delayed for hours because of “inconsistencies” in the data, the state party said in a statement.
The Iowa Democratic Party said it was using a new app to count the results, which was backed up by traditional paper tabulation.
The reporting process was severely delayed because of the two systems — but the state Democratic Party said the app was not hacked and did not fail during the process.