Iowa count: Clinton nudges past Sanders in photo-finish race

Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.). (Right to left: Melina Mara/The Washington Post; Lucian Perkins for The Washington Post)

By Anne Gearan and John Wagner-February 2

DES MOINES — Hillary Clinton appeared to squeak past insurgent rival Sen. Bernie Sanders in Iowa’s presidential nominating vote, according to results Tuesday, redeeming a crushing loss here in 2008 but revealing the shortcomings of a candidate who once seemed invincible.

Results from Iowa’s Democratic Party, announcing 100 percent of the precincts counted, gave Clinton a whisker-thin margin: 49.8 percent to Sanders’s 49.6 percent — setting up what is likely to become a prolonged contest for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Under the state’s caucus system, delegates are assigned by percentage of the vote.

Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley received less than 1 percent of the vote, according to the results released hours after he dropped out of the race.

[How Sanders caught fire and turned Iowa into a real race]

Like so many others, Givan Tichy was torn between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders at the start of caucus night. But after a long night of debating, first time caucus-goer Tichy decided to go with his heart and feel the "Bern." (Alice Li/The Washington Post)

The outcome from Monday’s caucuses was a relief for Clinton loyalists confronted in recent weeks with the wrenching possibility that Clinton’s second-chance candidacy, like her first, might falter out of the gate and never recover.

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