Bernie Sanders nudges Buttigieg in New Hampshire
Bernie Sanders has won the crucial New Hampshire Democrat presidential primary, but it was far from the expected triumph.
Bernie Sanders has won the crucial New Hampshire Democrat presidential primary, but it was far from the triumph that the polls and his army of young supporters expected.
Instead, the 78-year-old democratic socialist was seriously challenged by two moderate Democrats, former mayor Pete Buttigieg and fast-rising senator Amy Klobuchar.
The result heralds a colossal tussle between the liberal and moderate wings of the Democratic Party as they decide what candidate should challenge President Donald Trump in November.
But the poll was a major setback for former frontrunner and ex-vice-president Joe Biden, who came a disappointing fifth with only 8.4 per cent of the vote and whose campaign is struggling to survive.
It was also a blow for senator Elizabeth Warren, the other big spending liberal in the race with Senator Sanders. She came fourth with only 9.4 per cent of the vote.
With almost all votes counted, Senator Sanders narrowly won the state with 26 per cent support from Mr Buttigieg on 24.4 per cent, followed by Senator Klobuchar on 19.8 per cent.
“This victory here is the beginning of the end for Donald Trump,” Senator Sanders said. “No matter who wins, we are going to unite together and defeat the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country.”
The surprise of the poll was the surge of late support for Senator Klobuchar, the moderate from Minnesota who easily leapfrogged Mr Biden and Senator Warren.
“Hello, America. I’m Amy Klobuchar and I will beat Donald Trump,” she told a room of cheering supporters in the state capital, Concord. “My heart is full tonight … we have beaten the odds every step of the way.”
Mr Buttigieg said the result showed that his campaign was not a flash in the pan.
“Thanks to you, a campaign that some said should not be here at all has shown that we are here to stay,” he said. “We will welcome new allies to our movement at every step.’
The poor result for Mr Biden has sounded alarm bells for his campaign.
The 77-year-old didn’t even stay in New Hampshire to wait for the results, choosing instead to fly to South Carolina to campaign in that state, which holds its primary late this month.
Speaking as the results came in, a defiant Mr Biden said he was not planning to quit the race and said only two states out of 50 had made their choice.
“We just heard from the first two of 50 states,” Mr Biden said.
“Not half the nation. Not a quarter of the nation. Not 10 per cent. Two. Where I come from, that’s the opening bell. It ain’t over, it’s just getting started.”
Mr Biden claimed he would rebound on the back of strong support from African-American and Latino voters in the larger states.
Senator Warren, speaking as the vote was counted, congratulated her rivals and said she would stay in the race, despite the disappointing result.
She called on Democrats to show greater party unity, urging warring candidates not to “burn down the rest of the party” in the fight to win the Democratic nomination.
Senator Sanders, whose state of Vermont shares a border with New Hampshire, easily won this primary in 2016 against Hillary Clinton and was the favourite to win here this year.
The late surge by Senator Klobuchar, 59, came after a strong performance in last week’s Democrat debate. She won only 12.3 per cent of the vote in last week’s Iowa caucuses.
The strong result makes her a viable candidate going into the next two contests, in Nevada and South Carolina, which have more diverse populations that the first two polling states.
Mr Biden, who is popular with African-Americans and Latinos, is expected to perform more strongly in Nevada and South Carolina but his poor showing in Iowa, where he came fourth, and now in New Hampshire, threatens his prospects for a revival in those states.
Several of the outsider candidates, including entrepreneur Andrew Yang and senator Michael Bennet, dropped out of the race after polling poorly.
Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia
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