After the utter disaster that was the Iowa caucuses, many were looking towards New Hampshire with bated breath. And as the votes trickled in, it became quite clear that the race is going to remain fluid for a long time. Coming out of New Hampshire, Senator Bernie Sanders once again won the first primary with 25.7% of the vote, repeating his victory in the Granite State, However, unlike in 2016 where he trounced Hillary Clinton by a margin of 20%, this time Sanders was narrowly trailed by former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg, who came in second with 24.4%. Both will be leaving New Hampshire with 9 national delegates, and Senator Amy Klobuchar’s upset 3rd place secures her the remaining 6 delegates at a shocking 19.8% of the vote.
No one else reached the 15% viability threshold for delegates,meaning that all candidates outside of the top 3 didn’t win any delegates and came out of the Granite State with a heavy loss. Notably, Senator Elizabeth Warren severely under-performed . However, it appears that the Massachusetts senator has no plans to drop out in the near future, asking her supporters to keep her fundraising efforts going through Super Tuesday. Former Vice President Joe Biden crashed into a low fifth place finish, further detracting from his once-commanding lead in the race. He previously admitted on the debate stage last Friday night that he was probably going to take a “gut punch” in New Hampshire. Before the night was even over, Biden had already fled the state to his last stand firewall in South Carolina.
Since then, it appears that Bernie Sanders has overtaken Biden’s front-runner status. As Nevada creeps closer, Sanders has begun leading the pack in his RealClearPolitics national average, and his fundraising is more robust than ever. After Nevada comes South Carolina, which many have pointed to as Joe Biden’s last chance at mounting a comeback before losing all energy behind his campaign. And with Super Tuesday on the horizon, soon billionaire Michael Bloomberg will finally begin competing directly against the rest of the field.