The candidates did their best Monday to finish on a strong note. Bernie Sanders shakes hands with attendees during a campaign stop at the University of New Hampshire Whittemore Center Arena in Durham, N.H., February 8, 2016.
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The poll querying potential voters is important in New Hampshire where a voter who is not a declared Republican or Democrat may vote in the primary of his or her choice. But he was ahead last week in Iowa, too – though not almost as comfortably – and, with a limited ground operation, wound up second.
Bush and Rubio are both from south Florida, and the former two-term governor was once Rubio’s friend in the Florida state House.
The New Hampshire primary gives momentum to the winners heading into the next contests in SC and Nevada as candidates race to pick up delegates for their parties’ nominating conventions.
Republican Chris Christie says he’s heading home to New Jersey to “take a deep breath” and take stock of his struggling presidential bid.
“He’s gone bankrupt four times, he whines when it doesn’t go perfectly for him, and he insults his way to the nomination, ” Bush said. He is locked in a four-way heat with Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), and Sen.
The Republican primary now heads to SC on February 20 – a state that favors anti-establishment Republicans like Trump and Cruz.
The results of the Tuesday’s primary could answer that question. Marco Rubio finished behind him in fifth. “This is a bunch of people who are not doing their jobs”, he said of the $19 trillion debt.
The nonstop political action appears to have put some of the candidates in a reflective mood – perhaps because they’re approaching an inflection or ending (or near-ending) point to their campaigns. They expect you to plow the snow.
“I mean, Marco Rubio will leave the Senate this year and there will not be any evidence he was ever there”, Christie said, “any evidence except for the amnesty bill he co-authored with Chuck Schumer and then ran away from”. So listen to this: “that will never happen again”. “It must be like hell on wheels here, man”.
The crowd stood quietly, looking up at a large projection screen to the right of the stage that Bush would soon stand upon to tell his supporters, “This campaign is not dead”.
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“I’m kind of bummed.” said Rigo Martinez, a Texas corrections officer supporting Rubio in New Hampshire. “I think that he’s done a great job in New Jersey, and the people like him there”.
