US: Senator Bernie Sanders wins New Hampshire primary, strengthens White House bid
Pete Buttigieg, a former mayor of a town in Indiana, was a close second while Senator Amy Klobuchar came third.
United States Senator Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire primary for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination on Tuesday night – his second successive strong performance in the race to contest the presidential elections later this year against President Donald Trump, The New York Times reported.
Sanders had received about 26% of the vote with 90% of the votes counted, while Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend in Indiana, was a close second. Buttigieg seemed to have divided the centrist vote, a lot of which went to Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who was placed third, the newspaper reported.
Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts ended fourth, while former Vice President Joe Biden finished a distant fifth. The two were front-runners at one point of time, and the results raised questions about how long they can afford to continue their campaign to win back the White House for the Democrats.
“This victory here is the beginning of the end for Donald Trump,” Sanders told his supporters in the city of Manchester, promising to build an “unprecedented multi-generational, multi-racial political movement” to defeat the president. With this win, Sanders will get nine of the 24 delegates who will represent New Hampshire at the Democratic national convention in July, when the party will name a nominee on the basis of the delegates won. Sanders promised the crowd in Manchester that he would win the states of Nevada and South Carolina as well.
Buttigieg, who has suddenly surged, will also get nine delegates despite receiving fewer votes, reported BBC. He thanked voters, and warned them against succumbing to “a polarised vision” of politics – a subtle criticism of Sanders. Pitching himself as a centrist, he requested voters to reject a political approach that demands either revolution or nothing.