Politics & Government

Sanders Wins 2020 New Hampshire Presidential Primary

Update: Warren congratulates opponents; Biden flies to SC; Tulsi continues; Bennet, Yang end campaigns; Patrick suspends; Trump easily wins.

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Scenes from the 2020 New Hampshire first-in-the-nation presidential primary.
Scenes from the 2020 New Hampshire first-in-the-nation presidential primary. (Tony Schinella | Patch )

CONCORD, NH — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has been declared the winner of the 2020 New Hampshire first-in-the-nation presidential primary. With 93 percent of the vote counted, Sanders earned nearly 26 percent of the vote and held a 3,500 vote lead over former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, who had 24 percent of the vote. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar placed third place with about 20 percent.

"Tonight New Hampshire sent a message that working people are ready for a political revolution in this country," Sanders said. "This is what it will take to defeat Donald Trump. This victory isn’t about me; it’s about us. Tonight is about what our supporters, volunteers and grassroots donors built in New Hampshire."

The campaign claimed two victims Tuesday: Entrepreneur Andrew Yang and Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet both dropped out just as the vote-counting began.

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In her speech to supporters, Massachusetts U.S. Sen Elizabeth Warren, who placed fourth, congratulated the top candidates, especially Klobuchar, who showed "just how wrong the pundits can be when they count a woman out." The results also showed the party's best chance to defeat the president was to elect a candidate who could do the work, she said.

"I mean the hard, disciplined work," Warren said. "A candidate who can build a campaign to unite our party. And a candidate who can build a movement that is ready to take on corruption in Washington and win."

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Later in the evening, Warren reconfirmed on Twitter that she was not quitting the race.

Vice President Joe Biden, who was supposed to hold an election-night event in Nashua with his wife, Jill, canceled those plans and booked an afternoon flight to South Carolina, to begin campaigning there, his post-New Hampshire campaign firewall.

U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who placed seventh, said she would continue her campaign in South Carolina, Politico's Trent Spiner reported on Twitter.

In an email to supporters, according to a post on Twitter, Yang said, "there's a lot of disappointment because when you're goal oriented and you're a builder, it's very hard to pat yourself on the back and say, 'Job well done,' if you didn't win."

Former candidate Marianne Williamson said Yang brought more than good ideas to the race — he brought soulfulness.

"His conversation about technology, humanity and a more enlightened capitalism will not stop here," she wrote on Twitter. "Good ideas outlast campaigns. In our politics, and in my heart, he is here to stay."

Bennet placed 10th Tuesday and ended his race. He thanked his family as well as supporters, like James Carville, the former Clinton confidante, who jumped into the campaign late, and said Democrats "were losing our damn minds" supporting Sanders.

"I love you New Hampshire," Bennet said. "Whether you knew it or not, we were having a great time together. And I’ve said over and over again how much like Colorado New Hampshire is. It’s a complicated political state. It’s a swing state. It’s a state filled with thoughtful people who take incredibly seriously their responsibilities so seriously that today they were less decided than they were six weeks ago. But they decided tonight. And tonight is not going to be our night."

Deval Patrick, a former governor from Massachusetts, said he and his wife would discuss the results and decide whether he will continue with his effort Wednesday, according to WGBH News. Later, there were news reports he was suspending his campaign.

Tom Steyer, who spent millions of dollars on advertising and mail, placed sixth, and also vowed to continue campaigning.

Warren and Biden appear to be short of the 15 percent vote threshold required to win delegates in New Hampshire, meaning that Sanders, Buttigieg, and Klobuchar would split the 24 available.

Sanders won Concord by about 500 votes while Klobuchar came in second. Buttigieg placed third.

On the Republican side, the Associated Press declared President Donald Trump the winner after the polls closed.

Trump earned more votes, 120,000, than any other incumbent president in the history of the primary. According to the Secretary of State's Office, Barack Obama in 2012 and George W. Bush in 2004 won about 50,000 votes each. Bill Clinton in 1996 earned around 76,000 votes. George H.W. Bush received more than 92,000 votes while fending off a 1992 challenge from his right by Patrick J. Buchanan — who earned 65,000 votes in his unsuccessful challenge.

The president took to Twitter after Warren's speech and said she appeared to be having a pretty bad night.

"I think she is sending signals that she wants out," he wrote. "Calling for unity is her way of getting there, going home, and having a 'nice cold beer' with her husband!"

Former Mass. Gov. William Weld, was far behind the president in vote totals but confirmed he would be continuing on to Super Tuesday states.

"Longtime Trump advisor Steve Bannon said that if Donald Trump loses 3% of the traditional Republican vote, he won’t be re-elected," Weld said. "I guess he won’t be re-elected. On to Super Tuesday, where there are several open primaries where independents will vote. As when I was governor, independents overwhelmingly supported me. Our strategy has been and is to mobilize those independents, including young voters and millennials, along with Republicans, to send a message."

Unofficial results as of 7 a.m. Feb. 12, 93 percent reporting

Democrats

Bernie Sanders: 71,759

Pete Buttigieg: 68,141

Amy Klobuchar: 55,164

Elizabeth Warren: 25,899

Joe Biden: 23,475

Tom Steyer: 10,035

Tulsi Gabbard: 9,001

Andrew Yang: 7,880

Deval Patrick: 1,195

Michael Bennet: 905

Cory Booker: 143

Joe Sestak: 137

Robby Wells: 123

Kamala Harris: 96

Marianne Williamson: 86

John Delaney: 81

Steve Burke: 80

Julian Castro: 67

Tom Koos: 66

Michael Ellinger: 64

Steve Bullock: 55

Henry Hewes: 51

David Thistle: 46

Sam Sloan: 38

Ben Gleiberman: 30

Mosie Boyd: 29

Mark Greenstein: 27

Thomas Torgesen: 24

Rita Krichevskey: 22

Lorenz Kraus: 19

Jason Dunlap: 11

Roque De La Fuente III: 10

Raymond Moroz: 8

Write-ins: 4,063

Republicans

Donald Trump: 120,476

William Weld: 12,949

Mary Maxwell: 850

Joe Walsh: 794

Eric Merrill: 478

William Murphy: 402

Matthew Matern: 242

Stephen Comley: 191

Roque De La Fuente: 135

Rick Kraft: 111

Juan Payne: 78

Robert Ardini: 69

Larry Horn: 66

Bob Ely: 61

President Boddie

Star Locke: 58

Zoltan Istvan: 45

Write-ins: 3,563

Secretary of State Bill Gardner revised down turnout results last week suggesting 420,000 Granite Staters would go to the polls to vote in the 2020 New Hampshire first-in-the-nation presidential primary — and some early returns show the revision could be correct.

Results from communities with early poll closings showed higher returns when compared to the 2012 primary, the last contest where an incumbent was on the ballot, but short of the 2016 primary numbers — one of the highest turnouts in state history for a presidential primary.

Gardner also predicted the 2020 primary would be the highest turnout in the history of the primary with an incumbent on the ballot.

Warren's campaign manager, Roger Lau, sent out a lengthy memo to the media at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday outlining the state of the campaign, what they learned from Iowa, and while highlighting the thousands of people working hard to win in New Hampshire, focused instead on the races ahead.

"Warren is poised to finish in the top two in over half of Super Tuesday states (eight of 14), in the top three in all of them, and is on pace to pick up at-large statewide delegates in all but one," the memo stated, while also highlighting some of her opponents weaknesses.

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