Democratic Primaries: Joe Biden Says He Isn't Backing Down After Poor Iowa Performance

Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he isn’t giving up after partial results from the Iowa caucus show him in fourth place.

“I am not going to sugarcoat it: We took a gut punch in Iowa. The whole process was a gut punch,” Biden said at a rally in New Hampshire. “This isn’t the first time in my life that I’ve been knocked down.”

So far, 86% of the Iowa vote has been tallied, showing Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg in first place, with 26.7% of the vote. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is a close second, with 25.4%. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren comes in at third with 18.3%, with Biden trailing at 15.9%.

“There are an awful lot of folks out there who wrote off this campaign...They’ve been trying to do that from the moment I entered the race. Well, I’ve got news for them. I’m not going anywhere,” he continued.

Biden, 77, has been long seen as the frontrunner in the race, but Sanders has seen a surge in support in recent weeks. The Buttigieg campaign has also tried to have a strong ground game in Iowa, targeting moderate Democrats and disaffected conservatives.

The result is bad news for Biden, who has campaigned on electability and on his ties to former President Barack Obama. If the Biden campaign loses the upcoming New Hampshire primary and Nevada caucus, Biden hopes he will have a strong win in the South Carolina primary, where he has strong support from African-American voters.

Iowa caucus results have been delayed so far, due to problems with the mobile software that tallies the votes. The smartphone app, developed by Shadow Inc., will not be used in the upcoming Nevada caucuses later this month.