Bernie Sanders campaign co-chair Nina Turner: 'We declare victory in the great state of Iowa'

Nina Turner, Senator Bernie Sanders’s campaign co-chair, is declaring victory in Iowa — a proclamation she made just hours after the 78-year-old candidate and his close competitor Pete Buttigeig asked the state party for a partial recanvass on Monday.

Turner, who is a politician herself hailing from Ohio, spoke with Katie Couric alongside HuffPost’s Lydia Polgreen and Yahoo News national politics reporter Brittany Shepherd at the 2020 MAKERS Conference in Los Angeles, Calif. During a live video interview from New Hampshire — where polls place Sanders leading the pack — Turner was asked by Couric if Sanders might have had more momentum heading into New Hampshire if the dramatics of Iowa not happened.

“There was some uncertainty there that night,” Turner said of the Feb. 3 election, “and we couldn’t make the announcement that very night but our campaign has rebounded nicely, we raised $25 million in the month of January and we’re rolling strong.” She added: “And we declare victory in the great state of Iowa.”

Turner also said that it was a “shame” that the voting mistakes happened, but noted: “It is important for us to make sure that every single caucus-goer’s vote is counted and our campaign certainly has seen some discrepancies and so we want to make sure that those discrepancies are cleared up.”

“It’s wrong to keep people waiting for days and even now we still don’t know what the results actually are,” she said. “What we do know, however, is that Senator Bernie Sanders did win the popular vote, he won it on the first round, he won it on realignment.” Turner continued: “This will forever change the caucus process, the Iowa Democratic Party was wrong and also the DNC has to bear some brunt of responsibility for putting this stain on the Iowa Caucus process.”

Follow the 2020 Makers Conference at Makers.com.