6 Mar 2020

Democratic Party in American Samoa to reassess after Bloomberg drops out

3:30 pm on 6 March 2020

The Democratic Party in American Samoa has to change its mind about who should contest the US presidential election.

A mid-size billboard promoting the US billionaire and Democratic Party presidential hopeful, Mike Bloomberg, in the village of Nu'uuli in American Samoa.

A mid-size billboard promoting the US billionaire and Democratic Party presidential hopeful, Mike Bloomberg, in the village of Nu'uuli in American Samoa. Photo: RNZ Pacific / Fili Sagapolutele

Michael Bloomberg initially won the territory's five delegates, but he has since dropped out of the race.

The New York billionaire had a disastrous performance in the Super Tuesday primaries, apart from in American Samoa, where he won nearly half of its 351 votes.

RNZ Pacific correspondent Fili Sagapolutele said the local branch of the party would soon meet to decide who to support to take on President Donald Trump.

"They have to meet and decide what they need to do with the five delegates. Whether they're gonna spread it out or they're gonna not spread it out, but they still need to get these delegates into the national convention."

Meanwhile, the party has apologised for what it calls "a miscalculation" in its delegate allocation regarding Super Tuesday voting, where five delegates were announced for Mr Bloomberg and one for Tulsi Gabbard.

Today the party said after much consideration and recalculation, the correct and official distribution was four delegates for Mr Bloomberg and two delegates for Ms Gabbard.

With the former New York mayor withdrawing from the presidential candidate race, Mr Bloomberg's four delegates remained unpledged.

The Democratic Party of American Samoa has a total of 11 delegates, including five Super Delegates, to the Democratic National Convention.

The final and certified results from this week's vote saw Mr Bloomberg secure 49.9 percent of the 351 votes and Tulsi Gabbard get 29.3 percent.