Biden loses in American Samoa to Jason Palmer

President Joe Biden lost the Democratic presidential primary in American Samoa Tuesday to a lesser-known candidate.

The local Democratic Party told The Associated Press that Democratic challenger Jason Palmer won 51 votes and Biden won 40.

For most of Tuesday evening, Biden had been sweeping the rest of the country’s Super Tuesday primaries. Palmer’s win marks the first time that another Democratic candidate has won a primary this cycle.

There are six delegates up for grabs in American Samoa.

It isn’t the first time American Samoa has been a surprise. In 2020, former New York City mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg won the territory’s presidential primary.

American Samoa is a territory, so it does not have electoral votes in the general election. However, it can send delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

Palmer is an ed-tech entrepreneur and former postsecondary deputy director of the Gates Foundation. He qualified for the presidential ballot in 16 U.S. states and territories, according to a press release.

Ahead of the primary, Palmer told Inside Higher Ed he was running because he thinks “the leaders of both parties seem unable or unwilling to find win-win solutions for the working class and the next generation.”

“My presidential campaign aims to pull America out of these conflicts by offering a very different, positive, optimistic vision of how we can work together to reinvent and rebuild the American dream for the 21st century,” Palmer said to the outlet. “We will focus on energizing young people and center-left/center-right problem-solvers.”