Sanders' soft victory

Bernie Sanders' path to the nomination is the same one Trump took in 2016. But it won't be so easy.

Bernie Sanders.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Joe Raedle/Getty Images, Aerial3/iStock)

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won the Democratic primary in New Hampshire on Tuesday night — but he didn't win it with anything close to enough decisiveness to dispel fears that the party's path to settling on a nominee is going to be a long and grueling process with an outcome that's far from clear or obvious.

Four years ago, Sanders prevailed over Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire with 60.1 percent of the vote. On Tuesday, Sanders was projected to win with just 26 percent. Of course, he was running in a much more crowded field this time around. On the other hand, he's from a neighboring state and the candidates who finished second and third— former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, respectively — are Midwesterners who are much less well known. The fact that Buttigieg effectively tied Sanders in Iowa and trailed the democratic socialist by less than 2 percentage points in New Hampshire is a sign that Sanders' candidacy is very far from putting away the competition.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.