Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Make a sustaining gift today to support local journalism!
0000017a-15d9-d736-a57f-17ff8d8c0001Click on a photo to find stories by candidate:0000017a-15d9-d736-a57f-17ff8d8c0002More Content:Our Voters Guide provides an overview of all you need to know about the 2016 N.H. Presidential Primary.Click here to explore a calendar of candidate visits and other Primary campaign events.Click here for our Money in Politics stories and data interactives.Visit our Where They Stand series for an overview of the candidates' positions on key policy questions.Visit our series Primary Backstage to learn about the people and places that make the N.H. Primary tick.To see NHPR photos from the campaign trail, visit our Primary 2016 album on Flickr.

Sanders Wins New Hampshire. Next Up: What It Means

For Bernie Sanders, the New Hampshire Democratic primary was over before his after-party got started.

The gymnasium at Concord High School was not even half-full, and many supporters were still being wanded by the Secret Service when the news broke that, with with just 8 percent of precincts reporting, CNN had declared Sanders the winner.

The roar from the crowd as deafening.

Sanders captured 60 percent of the statewide vote, a convincing margin over Hillary Clinton. His victories were not isolated to the state's liberal strongholds or along the Vermont border. He carried college towns, working-class cities, the North Country and almost the entire southern tier.

Sanders' win had breadth as well.

“Because of a huge voter turnout, and I mean yooge, we won,” Sanders said in his victory speech,  emphasizing his Brooklyn accent to his supporters' delight. "Because we harnessed the energy and the excitement that the Democratic Party will need to succeed in November.”

But as the race now moves to states in the south and west, the question is: Does a Sanders victory in New Hampshire foretell future success?

It didn't take long for the campaign to start looking ahead. Minutes after the race was called, staffers  sent it's large email list of supporters a fresh fundraising appeal. A text followed shortly after, asking for a small-donation.

And in his victory speech, Sanders - who has raised close to $100 million since entering the race - made a pitch himself- $10, $20, $50. Without a super-PAC, he said, the campaign needs small donors to keep it going until Super Tuesday.

Credit Sam Evans-Brown / NHPR
/
NHPR
Sanders addresses supporters after winning the New Hampshire Primary

Sanders delivered an abbreviated version of the stump speech he's been giving for months. But he still managed to go on for nearly a half-hour. And those in the audience -- mostly volunteers and contributors to his campaign -- knew it word for word.

When talking about the size of his average campaign donation, for example, the crowd roared along with him: "$27!"

At Southern New Hampshire University, Clinton told a disappointed, but noisy crowd that she was looking forward to the next stop in the nominating race, South Carolina, where polls have her in the lead.

“And here's what we're going to do,” she said. “Now we take this campaign to the entire country. We're going to fight for every vote in every state, we're going to fight for real solutions that make a real difference in people's lives.”

The coming days will almost certainly bring a debate over what Sanders' New Hampshire victory means. Was it his support among younger voters? Or his the next-door-neighbor factor, as the Clinton camp has been arguing for weeks? 

Sanders' staff has pushed back hard against that notion, and last night, Julia Barnes, the campaign's New Hampshire director, called it "a ridiculous argument."

“The truth is," she said, "at the end of the day, we saw success in parts of the state, in precincts, where six months ago when I arrived here in August, people didn't know his name.”

Sam Evans-Brown has been working for New Hampshire Public Radio since 2010, when he began as a freelancer. He shifted gears in 2016 and began producing Outside/In, a podcast and radio show about “the natural world and how we use it.” His work has won him several awards, including two regional Edward R. Murrow awards, one national Murrow, and the Overseas Press Club of America's award for best environmental reporting in any medium. He studied Politics and Spanish at Bates College, and before reporting was variously employed as a Spanish teacher, farmer, bicycle mechanic, ski coach, research assistant, a wilderness trip leader and a technical supporter.
Related Content

You make NHPR possible.

NHPR is nonprofit and independent. We rely on readers like you to support the local, national, and international coverage on this website. Your support makes this news available to everyone.

Give today. A monthly donation of $5 makes a real difference.