Democrats’ Super Tuesday
Biden loses in American Samoa to a complete outsider
March 6, 2024, 11:14 a.m
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US President Biden is narrowly defeated in the primary elections on a US territory in the Pacific. This has no political consequences, but it is still embarrassing for him. Unlike Biden, his opponent had at least tried to protect the archipelago from a distance.
US President Joe Biden suffered an embarrassing defeat in the Democratic primaries on Super Tuesday: He lost to a largely unknown candidate in American Samoa.
The group of islands in the Pacific has fewer than 50,000 inhabitants, and the caucus there – a gathering of party supporters – brought together less than 100 people in the capital Pago Pago. Jason Palmer, a 52-year-old tech entrepreneur, received 51 votes. Biden only received 40.
However, the defeat is bearable for Biden. The result will be rounded so that American Samoa will send three representatives for Palmer and three for Biden to the nomination convention. The party conference will take place in Chicago in August; The Democratic candidate for the presidential election will only be officially chosen there. The delegates are being determined in the currently ongoing primary elections.
But even all six delegates from American Samoa would not have made a difference for Palmer in Chicago; at best it would have been a symbolic victory. Biden now has 1,464 votes; 1,968 delegates would be needed in the first round. The three delegates from American Samoa are also the first not to go to Biden. And finally, it is not the first time that the Polynesian US territory has taken a special path in democratic primaries: four years ago, former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg won his only victory there.
Jason Palmer comes from Maryland on the east coast of the USA and has never been to American Samoa. What was apparently crucial to his narrow victory was that he held virtual meetings for the island group’s residents and hired three employees to campaign for him. According to the New York Times, he promised American Samoans better access to health care, better educational opportunities and significantly increased protection from the consequences of climate change. Palmer is also positioning himself as an alternative to Biden with regard to the war between Hamas and Israel: in February he called for a ceasefire. The day before Super Tuesday, Palmer had written on Xit is “long overdue” that there is a president in Washington who supports American Samoa.
In an interview with the New York Times, Palmer admitted that Biden would “very likely” win the nomination. His election campaign is still meant seriously. “My goal is to attract enough delegates to the Democratic Convention to make education a priority issue in this election.”
The residents of American Samoa are effectively second-class U.S. citizens: they have U.S. “nationality” but not citizenship. They can take part in the primaries, but do not have the right to vote in presidential or congressional elections.