Yesterday, three states — Hawaii, Utah, and Idaho — hosted the “Bermuda Triangle” of primaries. Candidates ignored them, focusing on Super Tuesday states, and turnout was pretty low in states that have small population bases to begin with.
Two quick (and largely inconsequential) observations to share. One, Hawaii voters really seem to like it when you bother to pay attention to them. Despite the state’s distance, Dennis Kucinich actually went to the islands twice to campaign. He was richly rewarded for his efforts, with Hawaii giving Kucinich is strongest performance to date. Indeed, for the very first time, Kucinich has earned delegates. Congrats, Dennis.
And two, Al Sharpton managed to have the single worst day any candidate could possibly have. There were three contests yesterday and he managed to lose to Howard Dean in each of them, despite the fact that Dean pulled the plug on his campaign last week. But that’s not the funny part. According to the latest results, Sharpton couldn’t find a single person to support him yesterday. I’m not talking about zero percent, I mean zero votes. Not even one person in any of these three states accidentally voted for Sharpton. That’s gotta hurt.
In case you missed yesterday’s results:
Hawaii caucuses
Kerry — 46% (12 delegates)
Kucinich — 30% (8 delegates)
Edwards — 13% (0 delegates)
Dean — 9% (0 delegates)
Sharpton — 0% (0 delegates)
Idaho caucuses
Kerry — 54% (12 delegates)
Edwards — 22% (6 delegates)
Dean –11% (0 delegates)
Kucinich — 6% (0 delegates)
Sharpton — 0% (0 delegates)
Utah primary
Kerry — 55% (5 delegates)
Edwards — 30% (3 delegates)
Kucinich — 7% (0 delegates)
Dean — 4% (0 delegates)
Sharpton — 0% (0 delegates)