by Naomi Lim | February 05, 2020 01:23 PM

Joe Biden offered a blunt assessment of his performance in Iowa as he started wooing voters in earnest ahead of New Hampshire’s Feb. 11 Democratic presidential primary.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat it — we took a gut punch in Iowa. The whole process took a gut punch,” the former vice president, 77, told supporters in Somersworth, New Hampshire, on Wednesday.

While a clear winner hasn’t emerged from the Feb. 3 opening Iowa caucuses, preliminary results show Biden languishing in fourth place behind former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, as well as Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, with 71% of precincts reporting.

Buttigieg and Sanders so far have 11 delegates apiece, calculated after they won 26.8% and 25.2% of Iowa’s state delegate equivalents respectively. Warren has five delegates, with 18.4% of state delegate equivalents. Meanwhile, Biden is teetering on the edge of viability with zero delegates after he earned only 15.4% of state delegate equivalents.

[Related: Chaotic Iowa caucuses spook New Hampshire Biden supporters even as results unclear]

The release of results from Iowa has been slow-walked after a major snafu with an app designed to allow caucus chairman and chairwoman to report their precinct results to the party’s headquarters.

Biden’s campaign for months had foreshadowed how its candidate would struggle in the kickoff contest for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, but the beating comes as financial disclosure reports show he has only $9 million cash on hand heading into New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, and Super Tuesday.

“I’m going to fight for this nomination,” Biden said on Wednesday, referring to naysayers regarding this third White House bid. “I’ve got news for them. I’m not going anywhere. And I’m counting on New Hampshire.”

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