Sanders eked out the lowest winning Democratic primary vote share in New Hampshire in 68 years
The relatively low turnout for Iowa's Democratic caucuses prompted some concerns about Democratic enthusiasm in the 2020 election, but New Hampshire primary voters turned out in force on Tuesday. With nearly 90 percent of precincts reporting, 274,785 people voted in the Democratic primary, above the 253,062 turnout level in 2016 and edging close to the record turnout of 287,527 in 2008, as NBC's Steve Kornacki notes.
But as The Atlantic's Ronald Brownstein points out, the high turnout didn't appear to help any one candidate.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is the consensus declared winner of the New Hampshire primary, but his roughly 26 percent of the vote is a sharp falloff from his 2016 win, when he beat Hillary Clinton 60 percent to 38 percent. Brownstein says that's the lowest winning Democratic vote share in New Hampshire since 1952.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sanders had "asked supporters to engineer the 'highest turnout in the history of the New Hampshire primary,'" David Weigel reports at The Washington Post, but high turnout "may not necessarily help him: The absence of a real Republican contest has freed up the state's 400,000-plus 'non-affiliated' voters, and in the past few days, it was easy to find them poking around at events for Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg."
"If I had to sum up the night (and the Democratic race to date)," FiveThirtyEight's Dan Hopkins wrote Tuesday night, "I'd say this: 'All Your Candidates Belong to Factions.'"
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
‘Consistency at the ballot box isn’t nearly as meaningful to many voters here’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
8 musicals to see this winter, all across the United Statesthe week recommends New shows and reconsidered productions are on the move
-
Rob Reiner, wife dead in ‘apparent homicide’speed read The Reiners, found in their Los Angeles home, ‘had injuries consistent with being stabbed’
-
Senate votes down ACA subsidies, GOP alternativeSpeed Read The Senate rejected the extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits, guaranteeing a steep rise in health care costs for millions of Americans
-
Abrego García freed from jail on judge’s orderSpeed Read The wrongfully deported man has been released from an ICE detention center
-
Indiana Senate rejects Trump’s gerrymander pushSpeed Read The proposed gerrymander would have likely flipped the state’s two Democratic-held US House seats
-
Democrat files to impeach RFK Jr.Speed Read Rep. Haley Stevens filed articles of impeachment against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
-
$1M ‘Trump Gold Card’ goes live amid travel rule furorSpeed Read The new gold card visa offers an expedited path to citizenship in exchange for $1 million
-
US seizes oil tanker off VenezuelaSpeed Read The seizure was a significant escalation in the pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
-
Judge orders release of Ghislaine Maxwell recordsSpeed Read The grand jury records from the 2019 prosecution of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will be made public
-
Miami elects first Democratic mayor in 28 yearsSpeed Read Eileen Higgins, Miami’s first woman mayor, focused on affordability and Trump’s immigration crackdown in her campaign
