For Donald Trump, for 1 night, there was so much winning
Published 10:44 am Wednesday, February 10, 2016
MANCHESTER, N.H. — For Donald Trump, for one night, there was so much winning.
The billionaire political novice on Tuesday posted a decisive victory in the New Hampshire primary, a once-unthinkable first for an enterprise built on the promise of putting America on top and turning politics on its head. Restive Democrats had their own act of anti-establishment defiance, lining up behind Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, while delivering a broad rejection of Hillary Clinton’s second bid for the White House.
Trump
“We are going to make our country so strong,” Trump told a raucous crowd in Manchester, with typical bombast. “We are going to make America so great again. Maybe greater than ever before.”
With votes still being tallied, Trump led with 35 percent of the vote. In his wake was a field of Republicans still-struggling to break out of the pack. With about 16 percent, Ohio. Gov. John Kasich surged from relative obscurity to second-place, a feat his poorly funded campaign will struggle to replicate. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio jostled for third place, while a disappointed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie trailed behind.
The results offered little clarity to the nomination battles likely to stretch on into the spring — giving the parties’ establishment fits and testing voters’ commitment to the outsider excitement. Republicans head to South Carolina, a hotbed of tea party groups and evangelical voters that will test Trump’s staying power.
“I think they’re all really potential threats,” Trump said of his rivals Wednesday morning on MSNBC. “But I’m ok at handling threats.”
Sanders was leading Clinton by 22 percentage points, with roughly 90 percent of the vote tabulated. Democrats move on to Nevada, where Sanders will leave his New England neighborhood and try to prove his mettle with a more diverse and urban electorate.
“We have sent a message that will echo from Wall Street to Washington, from Maine to California,” he told a cheering crowd in Concord. His campaign launched ads Wednesday in Oklahoma, Minnesota, Colorado and Massachusetts — all states where they believe Sanders can grow.
