Sanders eked out the lowest winning Democratic primary vote share in New Hampshire in 68 years

(Image credit: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images)

published 12 February 2020

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.

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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."

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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.

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