Bernie Declared Winner of Nevada Caucus - UPDATE

With only 4% of ballots in Bernie Sanders has been declared the winner of the Nevada Democratic Caucus. Sanders has earned 54.2% of the vote and has a 3:1 margin lead over Joe Biden at 18%. Elizabeth Warren is in third at 10% (possibly on the strength of her debate performance on Wednesday) with Pete Buttigieg in fourth at 8.7% followed by billionaire Tom Steyer at 6.4%. Amy Klobuchar was a complete non-factor in the race.

This is Bernie's biggest win to date after narrowly losing to Buttigieg in Iowa and narrowly edging Buttigieg in New Hampshire. One week from tonight voters in South Carolina will weigh in. If Bernie wins in the Palmetto state he could clinch the nomination by Super Tuesday. But as we all know a week in politics is a lifetime.

In light of the decisiveness of Bernie's win, it will be interesting to see if he becomes the focal point of Tuesday night's debate in Charleston. With the exception of Buttigieg, the focus of the other candidates in last week's debate in Las Vegas was on Michael Bloomberg. In previous debates, the focus has been Buttigieg. Bernie has won New Hampshire and Nevada and narrowly missed winning Iowa. If he isn't the focus of Tuesday night's debate then this tells me the other candidates have thrown in the towel.

UPDATE: With 43% of the vote, Sanders still has a decisive lead over Biden (46.8% to 20.7%), but Buttigieg has leapt into third (15.1%) with Warren & Klobuchar in single digits, respectively (9.5% & 4%).