Sanders surges to the top in New Hampshire primary
Senator Bernie Sanders has declared victory in the Democrats’ New Hampshire presidential primary.
Sanders’ victory has been confirmed by multiple news outlets, and the results show that he has managed to edge ahead of his main rival, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. With 97% of the results in, Sanders has struggled his way to the top of the poll with a total of 25.9% of the votes, putting some clear daylight between him and Buttigieg, who is on 24.4%.
The clarity of the result will be welcomed by Democrats after the embarrassing chaos of the Iowa caucus last week, where a technical glitch in the vote counting system delayed the release of the result and the local Democrats was unable to declare a clear winner.
Sanders was exuberant last night as he addressed an elated room of activists chanting his name. He said: “Let me say this victory here is the beginning of the end for Donald Trump.”
Sanders also took the opportunity to spell out that a Sanders presidency would mean for a radical change for the country: “Our campaign is not just about beating Trump, it is about transforming this country. It is about having the courage to take on Wall Street, the insurance companies, the drug companies, the fossil fuel industry, the military industrial complex.”
But while Sanders is the clear winner in the vote share, the quirks of the primary system – where delegates are awarded to candidates as they rack up votes in certain areas of the state – has led to a tie of sorts. Sanders and Buttigieg have come out of the night with 9 delegates each.
And, along with the results of the Iowa race, Buttigieg has a narrow overall lead in the number of delegates who will vote for him to the Democrats’ presidential candidate at the Democrat National Convention in July. On the overall count, Senator Bernie trails Mayor Pete by 23 delegates to 21 – although it is very early in the race with all the big states to come.
Buttigieg was upbeat when he addressed his supporters this morning, thanking his team and his voters for keeping him in the race. “A campaign that some said shouldn’t be here at all has shown that we are here to stay,” he said.
He continued to pitch his candidacy as one for the moderates and in terms of cross-party support. “So many of you turned out, die-hard Democrats, independents unwilling to stay on the side-lines, and even some newly-former Republicans.” They were willing, he said, to vote for “a new generation of leadership”.
One of the true upsets of the night has been the success of Amy Klobuchar, who took a close third on 19.8% of the vote and bagged 6 delegates. The Senator for Minnesota has come ahead of bigger name rivals, Senators Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren, in an unexpected surge.
Klobuchar, surrounded by campaigners wielding signs which said “Win Big”, proclaimed: “We have beat the odds every step of the way. We have done it on merit, we have done it with ideas, and we have done it with hard work, because we are as resilient and strong as the people of this great nation.”
Neither Joe Biden nor Elizabeth Warren picked up any delegates, and both finished with just 9.3% and 8.4% of the vote respectively.
Biden was bruised but defiant. He said to his supporters: “We just heard from the first two of 50 states. Two of them. Not all the nation, not half the nation, not a quarter of the nation, not 10%…That’s the opening bell, not the closing bell.” Not quite “the comeback kid”, but far from a concession of defeat.
Warren also announced her intention to continue the fight, stating that “We’re two states in with 55 territories to go. We still have 98% of our delegates for our nomination up for grabs, and Americans in every part of the country are going to make their voices heard.” She stated that “I am here to get big things done.”
The outsider Andrew Yang has conceded the race and called off his campaign. “You know I am the math guy, and it is clear tonight from the numbers that we are not going to win this race,” he said. Yang finished eighth after Tom Steyer and Tulsi Gabbard – both candidates with fewer funds funnelled into their campaigns.
Winning in the two relatively small states of Iowa and New Hampshire is important for gaining momentum, but it is not essential. There has even been much talk in recent years of scrapping the tradition that these states open the race altogether. One Democrat candidate, Michael Bloomberg, has deliberately not campaigned in this years’ contests in Iowa and New Hampshire. He is spending hundreds of millions of dollars in the bigger states to come.
The race is far from over. This will not be a coronation for Sanders by any means.