Bernie Sanders Edges Out Buttigieg in New Hampshire Primary

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) narrowly defeated his rivals for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday in the New Hampshire primary.

Sanders, who had been leading in the polls ahead of the first-in-the-nation primary, has 26% of the vote and nearly 69,000 total votes at the time of this writing, with 90% of precincts reporting. Second-place candidate Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, trailed him by a mere 4,000 votes, earning 24.4% of the vote.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) won third place, garnering 19 percent support more than 52,000 votes. Falling in fourth and fifth place, respectively, were Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and former Vice President Joe Biden, who each failed to receive more than 10 percent of the vote. As such, Warren and Biden are unlikely to receive any delegates from New Hampshire.

According to exit polls conducted by NBC News, turnout appeared to be lower across New Hampshire than in prior presidential primary cycles. The biggest dropoff seems to have come among new and young voters. In particular, according to one exit poll, only 11 percent of New Hampshire voters were younger than 29 years of age on Tuesday, down from 19 percent in 2016.

Despite falling short of his 2016 performance in New Hampshire, Sanders was confident when declaring victory on Tuesday, telling voters this is “the beginning of the end for [President] Donald Trump.”

The Nevada Caucuses are up next on the primary calendar, scheduled for February 22. The South Carolina primary will follow on February 29.