But today, the winners of the New Hampshire primary are Donald Trump on the Republican side and Bernie Sanders in the Democratic race. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a politician so cunning that he makes Trump look about as threatening as a sock puppet, won the Iowa caucus but fell to third place in New Hampshire. Trump has led national polls for months and the New Hampshire win reinforces his position as front-runner, proving his unorthodox, populist campaign can win primaries. Trump was projected the Republican victor shortly after the polls closed. But a strong showing in New Hampshire can give a candidate momentum ahead of state contests in coming weeks, including the March 1 “Super Tuesday, when 11 states vote”. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., grimaces as he delivers his stump speech during a campaign stop at the University of New Hampshire Whittemore Center Arena, Monday, Feb. 8, 2016, in Durham, N.H.
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As for the Democrats, the win was expected for Sanders, who is a senator from a neighboring state, based on public opinion polls.
When asked about their view of the way the federal government is working, 48 percent of Republican New Hampshire primary voters were dissatisfied, but not angry, and 40 percent were angry.
Sanders’ gains come amid shifting political ideologies in the state, with two-thirds of Democratic voters on Tuesday identifying as politically liberal.
Unlike 2008, when she was running in the Democratic presidential contest against Barack Obama, the man who would become the nation’s first black president, Clinton seemingly has the minority vote to herself. Whereas Cruz won this group in Iowa, he only did one percent better than Trump among this group of voters in New Hampshire Tuesday (Cruz received 24 percent of their votes and Trump 23 percent).
Almost half of voters in the Republican primary made up their minds in the past week. Clinton cast Sanders as an unrealistic zealot for progressive purity without adequate experience to govern a divided country, and former President Bill Clinton suggested that some of Sanders’ supporters used sexist language in opposing his wife’s presidential bid.
Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada only account for just 4 percent of the delegates needed to secure the nomination, the memo said.
Sanders’ campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, conceded to NPR that Clinton has a big name-recognition advantage as the race broadens beyond Iowa and New Hampshire.
Altogether, independents accounted for about four out of every 10 voters in the Democratic primary, and slightly more in the Republican primary.
With Trump’s victory, attention shifted to the runners-up in the race.
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The Republican picture is much more muddled. When an audience member shouted out an insult directed at Cruz – a vulgar term for “coward” – Trump repeated the term and jokingly reprimanded the woman.
