After months of town halls, rallies and stump speeches, the 2020 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary ended with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) claiming the top spot with 25.7 percent of the votes, the Associated Press projects as of press time. South Bend, IN mayor Pete Buttegieg narrowly followed with 24.4 percent of the vote, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) garnered 19.7 percent of the vote to make a comeback third-place win.
“Let me say tonight that this victory here is the beginning of the end for Donald Trump,” Sanders said to a crowd of supporters in Manchester.
Buttegieg — who narrowly edged out Sanders in the Iowa Caucuses — grabbed a second place finish despite heavy attacks on his moderate stances and lack of experience.
“Here in a state that goes by the motto, Live Free or Die, you made up your own minds,” Buttigieg said in a speech to his supporters in Nashua. “You asserted that famous independent streak, and thanks to you, a campaign that some said shouldn’t be here at all has shown that we are here to stay.”
In Hanover, Buttigieg took the top spot with 25.9 percent of the votes. Sanders and Klobuchar came in a close second and third with 19.9 and 19.7 percent, respectively. Warren was just behind with 18 percent, and Biden came far behind in fourth place with 7.2 percent.
With a surge of late support, Klobuchar took third in the state, edging out former front-runners Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and former vice president Joe Biden.
This surprising finish has given a shot of adrenaline to her small campaign, which has already announced staff expansions in upcoming states.
“Because of you, we are taking this campaign to Nevada,” Klobuchar said in an address to her supporters in Concord. “We are going to South Carolina. And we are taking this message of unity to the country.”
Despite a strong polling over the last few months and neighboring New Hampshire, Warren came in fourth, garnering only 9.3 percent of voters. She still edged out Biden, who came in fifth with 8.4 percent of voters. Neither Biden nor Warren leave New Hampshire with delegates for this summer’s convention.
In a speech to supporters, Warren called for party unity and congratulated Klobuchar for her strong finish.
“I also want to congratulate my friend and colleague Amy Klobuchar for showing just how wrong the pundits can be when they count a woman out,” she said to a crowd of supporters.
Biden foreshadowed the subpar finish by not only predicting a poor outcome on Friday’s Democratic presidential debate but also leaving the state for South Carolina early yesterday.
Speaking in South Carolina, Biden criticized New Hampshire and Iowa for not being representative of the general population, particularly given its lack of black and Latino voters.
“It ain’t over folks — it’s just getting started,” Biden said to the crowd of his supporters.
Entrepreneur Andrew Yang and Sen. Micheal Bennet (D-CO) both dropped out around 8 p.m., making early news while primary results tricked in. Despite suspending their campaigns, Yang and Bennet garnered 2.8 and 0.3 percent in the state, respectively.
In neighboring Lebanon, Sanders won by a mere three votes over Buttegieg. Warren and Klobuchar followed in third and fourth. In Lyme, Buttegieg beat Klobuchar by only one vote, with Sanders and Warren following.
In the 2016 Democratic primary election, Sanders beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by a large margin of over 22 percent, although his margin of victory was smaller in Hanover.
On the other side of the aisle, President Donald Trump handedly won the Republican primary with 85.5 percent of the vote. Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, the only remaining Republican challenging the president, pulled in more than 9 percent of the vote. In Hanover, Weld pulled in 30.5 percent of the vote, with Trump winning just 50.4 percent.
