Women of the Granite state went to the polls in a big way, but not for Hillary Clinton.
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New Hampshire lacks enough minority voters to draw any conclusions about the impact of race and youth.
Meanwhile, Clinton recognized in her concession speech Tuesday night that she needs to improve how she communicates with young voters, who overwhelmingly support Sanders.
Clinton advisers gritted their teeth on Tuesday night as they dissected exit polls and other data to try to fathom the depth of Mr Clinton’s political vulnerabilities. “I get the impression from Hillary that as soon as she gets in office … she wouldn’t be an effective president”, said Michael Hathaway, “and if she was effective, it wouldn’t be for me, it would be for her banker friends who were giving her millions of dollars”. Hakeem Jeffries reaffirmed his support for Clinton Wednesday on a conference call after her defeat in New Hampshire.
In New Hampshire, many women said they didn’t feel compelled to vote for Clinton, who is vying to become the first female president.
But as Sanders’ pitches for free college tuition, Medicare-for-all health insurance and a $15-an-hour minimum wage have gotten more support, Clinton has grown more frustrated – dismissing Sanders as unable to get the results he’s promising. Look for her to find a way to address these points, a challenge she’s struggled to meet.
“It’s not something she should be laughing off”, he said.
But there was a theme to the students’ questions: A lot of these young black students’ ambivalence toward Hillary Clinton was a reaction not just to her, but also to her husband’s policies.
People gathered in Iowa in townhouses statewide to declare their favorite candidates’ names, huddled together by nomination preference in different corners of the room, voting by body count – an oddity otherwise known as a Democratic caucus.
And this cycle, at least at the moment, they are overwhelmingly behind Clinton’s White House bid.
Here’s why: New Hampshire has 24 Democratic delegates distributed based on the number of votes each candidate receives.
“I do not want black concerns to be moved out with them”.
“I think for young women, they clearly identify as feminists, they say they’re feminists, but I think the notion of having a woman president…it doesn’t drive them in the same way, as women who are in the traditional second wave of feminism”, said Debbie Walsh, director for the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.
Indeed, a few Sanders supporters appear to be banking on that. That’s more than 30,000 short of 2008.
Jeffries said that Sanders has chosen to focus on black issues now that he’s running for president in the “twilight” of his political career. Then of course many more switched to him after he clinched the nomination, so by convention time he pretty much had them all.
“We can not continue to have a government dominated by the billionaire class and a Congress that continues to work for the interest of the people on top, while ignoring working families”, he said.
Clinton’s supporters have taken aim at Sanders, criticizing a blurb he wrote for a book by radio personality Bill Press called “Buyer’s Remorse: How Obama let Progressives Down”.
Sanders has also called for a repeal of the Hyde Amendment, though he did so after Clinton.
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And right now, Harrison says, with those older black voters – men and women – they’re still leaning toward Clinton.
