The New Hampshire primary is coming to a close and it is projected that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and real estate mogul Donald Trump will be the winners. This is a remarkable win for both candidates who were seen on the outside looking in when the election began for both of their respective parties.
Majority of the votes from the New Hampshire have come in early, the three Republicans running behind Trump were Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, and Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), who won the Iowa caucuses last week. Behind all of them was Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), who had been seen as the strongest challenger to Trump until a disastrous debate performance on Saturday, in which New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie attacked Rubio and the senator responded by repeating the same talking point over and over.
In the Democratic race, Sanders was projected as the winner over former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who had been seen as her party’s prohibitive favorite a year ago.
Sanders was a self-identified “democratic socialist,” little known outside Washington and his home state of Vermont. But he built a massive movement with attacks on the power of Wall Street, and a promise of a “political revolution” that would provide universal, government-run health insurance and free public-college tuition.
Clinton’s defeat in New Hampshire was so resounding – and so long in coming – that Clinton’s campaign conceded immediately when the polls closed at 8 p.m. The campaign sent out a statement downplaying the importance of New Hampshire, which Clinton won in 2008. Her campaign promised to fight on through March, including the next-up contests in Nevada and South Carolina. The next states, Clinton’s campaign said, would be more likely to turn out her way.
