Jason Palmer won the American Samoa Democratic caucus on Tuesday, according to results posted by the small U.S. territory’s Democratic Party.
Wait, Jason who?
Palmer, a venture capitalist who has previously worked at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and for the test prep company Kaplan, has generated far less attention than other Democratic challengers to President Joe Biden, including Marianne Williamson and Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips.
However, according to Palmer’s social media feeds, the previously unknown candidate has spent the past week campaigning in American Samoa, hosting a meet and greet at a restaurant and a cleanup at a beach. The efforts were enough to receive 51 of the 91 votes cast at the American Samoa caucus. Biden received the remaining 40 votes, and Phillips received zero. No other candidates were on the ballot.
American Samoa, a collection of islands in the Pacific, is America’s southernmost territory. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, almost 50,000 people lived on the islands in 2020. Residents of the islands are not able to vote in the presidential election in November.
Palmer follows former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as an unexpected winner of the caucuses. Bloomberg won them in 2020, the only contest he won despite spending more than $1 billion over the course of his four-month campaign.
So far, Palmer has mostly self-funded his campaign, loaning himself more than $500,000, according to Federal Election Commission records.
The American Samoa Democratic Party says Palmer will win four delegates from the territory — more than either Williamson or Phillips have collected so far. Biden will win two delegates.