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What were the factors that led Mike Bloomberg to win the Democratic caucus in American Samoa?

Will
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Shoddy Weather
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  • Another interesting result was that Gabbard won more votes than Sanders and Biden combined. Speculation: being Samoan helped. – Golden Cuy Mar 12 '20 at 07:24

1 Answers1

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Most likely it boils down to something he did that likely no other candidate did: pay attention to them

The Bloomberg campaign said Monday it has seven full-time staff located in American Samoa. They are also running television ads, targeted radio ads and targeted digital and print ads across the islands, according to the campaign.

That attention earned him a key endorsement

Bloomberg received the endorsement of Samoan Chief Fa’alagiga Nina Tua’au-Glaude ahead of Super Tuesday.

This area is remote to the US and it only carries 6 delegates. Also, the people of American Samoa are not generally US citizens, and thus cannot vote in the general election.

Machavity
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    Most candidates have limited resources, and have to ask themselves "Will I get more delegates by putting these staffers in American Samoa, or in California?". The Bloomberg campaign did not have to make those trade-offs. – Patricia Shanahan Mar 05 '20 at 01:08
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    As a side note, it seems weird that Bloomberg would target 6 American Samoa votes, but not Iowa. –  Mar 05 '20 at 04:37
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    Bloomberg got in too late to qualify for Iowa. Hence the Super Tuesday push, which he just barely qualified for. – Machavity Mar 05 '20 at 04:49
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    Residents of US territories cannot vote in the general election whether they are US citizens (e.g. Puerto Rico) or not (American Samoa). – user4556274 Mar 05 '20 at 09:43
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    On a side note, Bloomberg received 175 votes in American Samoa, i.e. only 25 voters per full-time staffer on the ground. If the ratio was the same in contiguous USA (I know: it is not), he would have had to hire several millions of staffers to get a shot at the nomination: enough to drain even his enormous fortune ! – Evargalo Mar 06 '20 at 07:16
  • Are the American Samoans even able to take part in the Presidental Election? If not, why bother getting a nomination, except for bragging rights? – Dohn Joe Mar 06 '20 at 12:52
  • @DohnJoe Maybe he'll end up with lucrative trade agreements on samoa, because he's bought a lot of goodwill now. – Tschallacka Mar 06 '20 at 13:16
  • @Chipster - He was not only too late to get on the ballot in Iowa, but too late for South Carolina as well. Super Tuesday was his first real shot. – T.E.D. Mar 06 '20 at 14:10
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    @DohnJoe - No, they aren't. To vote in the US election you have to be a US citizen resident in an actual state (or DC), as it isn't really "a" election, but rather 51 separate elections happening at once. The reason some parties let others vote during the primaries is that not letting US citizens vote seems kind of unfair, and primary rules are up to parties, rather than requiring a Constitutional Amendment to change. – T.E.D. Mar 06 '20 at 14:12
  • @Evargalo Not even that, he got 50% of the votes. So only 350 people went out to vote in total. Out of a total population of 55,000. that's less than 1% of the population. For comparison, only about 1.2% of American Samoa are white. – Nzall Mar 06 '20 at 16:03
  • Again, if the American Samoans are not allowed to participate in the presidential election, what's the point of holding primaries? Why bother? – Dohn Joe Mar 06 '20 at 16:17
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    @DohnJoe they do participate in the presidential election. They don't vote in the election itself but they wield (just a little) influence over who the major parties nominate as candidates in the election when they hold their caucus. Why do the parties grant them that influence? Well they can set the rules however they choose, and both parties are active in local American Samoan politics and can receive donations from American Samoans so have good incentives to win their favor by some degree of national enfranchisement. – Will Mar 06 '20 at 17:36