President Trump easily won the New Hampshire Republican primary on Tuesday, but his challenger, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, was able to secure nearly 10 percent of the vote.
With 85 percent of precincts reporting, Trump has 85.7 percent of the vote, and Weld has 9.2 percent of the vote. Write-in candidates received 5.3 percent.
Weld was in New Hampshire on Tuesday, and visited more than a dozen polling locations. He told The Boston Globe he was "going to declare that I've exceeded expectations no matter what. The goal is to go all the way, ideally — to catch lightning in a bottle."
Several dozen supporters attended Weld's primary night party, including community college professor Karen Mason. She told the Globe she left the GOP after Trump was elected, and she will vote for anyone but Trump in the general election. Writer K. Peddlar Bridges echoed her sentiment, and dismissed the idea that he wasted his vote on Weld. "If you vote by conscience, that doesn't matter," he said.