By Celeste Katz
New Hampshire voters jammed the polls Tuesday for their first-in-the-nation Democratic and Republican primaries, with Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump coming into the contests as the respective heavy favorites for their party nominations.
Trump held a commanding double-digit lead on primary day in the Granite State, averaging better than 31% support. Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush were bunched up behind him in a brawl for second and third places — and a “ticket” out of New Hampshire to the next big primary in South Carolina.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton and her supporters braced for a rout by surging Bernie Sanders, who has captured the attention of millennial voters with his sweeping talk of battling economic inequality.
Reports of record turnout abounded ahead of the close of the final New Hampshire polling sites at 8 p.m. Eastern.
This post will be continually updated with live coverage of the primaries as the results start to come in.
11:21 p.m.: With about 76% of the primary vote tallied, the standings are as follows:
Per the Associated Press and New Hampshire Public Radio, Sanders had 60% support to Clinton’s 39%.
On the GOP side, Trump dominated with 34% of the vote. Kasich followed at 16%, and Cruz, Bush and Rubio remained bunched up at about 11% support each.
Stay tuned for more from the Election 2016 trail …
It is still early and Bernie Sanders has work to do with the black and browns aka minority class. Hillary Clinton already has the connections and her message is more refined. Bernie Sanders need to make up ground and quickly…
With that said-GO BERNIE GO!!!
Student loans and health care are sticking points for me and Hillary Clinton is on the wrong side of this…
I believe there is more us yearning for free public 4 year institutions and universal healthcare than she thinks!!!
I am in serious debt because I decided to obtain a bachelor’s degree and then a masters. At the very least, the bachelor should have been free. What country in Europe would leave me in obscene debt for having the nerves to educate myself??? If it wasn’t for Obama’s babystep income-sensitive plan, I would have never qualified for a mortgage. Like Bernie said, we should not punish Americans for having the audacity to educate themselves.
Hillary Clinton, it is a silly argument to say, you don’t think we should get it for free because you don’t billionaires getting a free ride. The k-12 is already free and believe me, Trump’s kids are not running through those doors for a free education. If they did, it would be in a neighborhood so rich that it wouldn’t matter….
I understand there are limitations with universal healthcare, but certainly a nation as smart as USA can study the pitfalls of other nations and tweak our system in a way to address longer than average long waits and ration of care problem. If we can put a man on the moon, certainly we can guarantee our citizens universal health care and a free bachelors degree. Good health and smarts will benefit all of us.
Geesh~~~