Who is Jason Palmer? A previously unknown Democrat beats Biden in American Samoa
Election 2024
CHRIS MEGERIANMarch 6, 2024
President
Joe
Biden won every Democratic contest on Super Tuesday, except American Samoa.
There he briefly fell for a previously unknown candidate named Jason Palmer. Of the 91 votes cast in the area’s caucus, Palmer won 51 and Biden won 40, the local party said.
“I found out I won because my phone started blowing up while friends and campaign workers were texting me,” Palmer said in an interview late Tuesday.
Palmer, 52, he said
had
never visited the area before the caucus.
“I’ve been campaigning remotely, doing Zoom town halls, talking to people, listening to them about their concerns and what’s important to them,” he said.
American Samoans are not actually American citizens. Is that against the Constitution?
The outcome will hardly derail Biden’s march toward his party’s nomination. There were only six delegates at stake in the U.S. territory, a small collection of islands in the South Pacific with a population of fewer than 50,000. Palmer and Biden each earned three delegates from the race.
On the day before the caucus, Palmer posted on X that Washington DC was long overdue for a president who will be an advocate for American Samoa. His report includes photos of young people holding homemade campaign signs.
Palmer is a Baltimore native who has worked for several companies and nonprofits, often in the fields of technology and education. He said voters want someone who is more 21st century than Joe Biden as president.
Palmer has loaned his campaign more than $500,000 of his own money, according to campaign finance records.
You can’t take the money with you when you die, he said. But you can change the world while you’re here.
Residents of U.S. territories vote in primaries but are not represented in the Electoral College.
American Samoa has been the scene of quixotic victories before. During the 2020 Democratic primaries, billionaire Michael Bloomberg won the only victory in that area.
Fernando Dowling is an author and political journalist who writes for 24 News Globe. He has a deep understanding of the political landscape and a passion for analyzing the latest political trends and news.