The second contest of 2016 is over and Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are still riding high on their first victories this cycle, in New Hampshire.
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One candidate will not be joining them.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was expected to drop out after finishing sixth in New Hampshire.
But complicating the primary math are the additional delegates, “superdelegates”, that are shaping up to be Clinton’s insurance plan against the Sanders insurgency.
“We’re going to win in South Carolina”, Trump told supporters.
“What began last week in Iowa, what voters here in New Hampshire confirmed tonight, is nothing short of the beginning of a political revolution”, Sanders said.
Indeed, no one did. But expect to see a lot more of him in the next few weeks. The key date ahead is March 1, Super Tuesday, when about half of the delegates for both parties are decided.
There are many sources of anger in the Republican Party. Now just 6 but that means Donald Trump and the anti-trump candidates down to five. John Kasich, who barely campaigned in Iowa and came in eighth out of 11 candidates, finished in second place in New Hampshire. Kasich’s victory gives him momentum, but the governor put all of his chips there and doesn’t yet have the organization in other states that some of his opponents have.
With populations that are more than 90 percent white, Iowa and New Hampshire lack the diversity to be considered bellwethers in a presidential race: Minorities make up almost a quarter of the national population.
Of the remaining seven candidates competing for the Republican nomination, Cruz went on to say that he is best poised to beat Trump from the right. I did not do well on Saturday night – listen to this: that will never happen again. Kasich didn’t make the mistake of completely ignoring the Hawkeye State, but he spent little time campaigning here. Young voters in New Hampshire liked Sanders’ populist proposals to break up big banks and have the government pay for free college tuition. With 94 percent of precincts reporting, Sen. Trump won with 35% of the vote. In many cases he’s an even less popular choice, given his willingness to fight with his own party in the Senate and his holier-than-thou personality. And after he placed sixth in Iowa, coming in behind Sen. Neither of the next two Republicans, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, have any reason to leave the race now. She oozed confidence with every word and gesture, making clear her belief that New Hampshire spelled Sanders’ final success.
All four now are headed to SC.
The remainder of the field, Dr. Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina, each earned less than five percent of the vote.
In her concession speech, Clinton echoed Sanders’ calls for taking on Wall Street banks and tackling income inequality.
Sanders heads next to SC, which holds its Democratic primary contest on February 23.
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Hillary Clinton has been heavily favored in polls to date to win SC, in part due to Clinton support among African-American voters.
