The 2016 edition of the New Hampshire primary is in the books and it was one hell of a night for the outsider candidates. On the Republican side it was a great night for Donald Trump who was the clear winner and he did it by winning votes from a wide range of demographics.
Meanwhile, Democrat Bernie Sanders continued the night of political history as he crushed front runner Hillary Clinton. Sanders scored big with young voters, blue collar Democrats and a very large percentage of the independent vote.
Going inside the numbers on the GOP side of the race it was Trump with a little over 35 percent of the vote followed by Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
The clear winners last night were Trump who proved that he has the ability to turn out the vote, Kasich who for the most part ran a quiet campaign that was very positive and it played well in New Hampshire, then there was Texas Sen. Ted Cruz who played well with the ultra conservative part of the voters. His 3rd place finish here, along with his win in Iowa sets him up with of course Trump to be a force in the South.
Bush did not get the second or for that matter the 3rd place he had hoped but South Carolina sets up better for him. He still has the money to keep going but soon he needs at least a strong second somewhere.
Losers were Rubio who came into New Hampshire with plenty of momentum but after a very bad debate performance he fell like a rock. Christie who took Rubio apart at the debate never was able to find traction in New Hampshire and expected to drop out of the race as early as today. Then you had the two candidates most likely to Christie in the exit lane as both Carly Fiorina and Dr. Ben Carson barely showed up in the New Hampshire voting tallies.
Over on the Democratic side Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was a huge winner over front runner Hillary Clinton. He won 59 percent to 38 percent and that is a big win for the 74 year old senator. He also became the first Jewish presidential candidate to win a primary.
Clinton now goes south and she hopes that her appeal to black and Hispanic voters will translate into a win in South Carolina and some of the other SEC Tuesday states. She lost the young women and independent vote, which she owned in years past.
