Trump, Sanders victorious in New Hampshire primaries

Clinton conceded the New Hampshire race shortly after it had been called.

“You can be certain that our victory tonight will prompt a desperate response from the nation’s financial elite and the political establishment who want to stop our campaign to transform America”, Sanders said in an e-mail to supporters.

Sanders and Clinton touched on similar themes in their speeches, like the environment, a broken campaign finance system and a focus on women’s issues.

Ahead of the vote, opinion polls in New Hampshire showed Sanders with a shrinking but still comfortable double-digit lead over Clinton in the Democratic race. In less than a year, Sanders has turned a hopeless quest into a serious threat to Clinton’s ability to win the Democratic nomination – and has already stopped a coronation.

Republican front-runner Donald Trump speaks to supporters on primary night in New Hampshire.

“We let John feel the way he feels, but we spent more days here”, Christie said. The results transform Mr. Trump, a divisive figure whose positions and style have attracted some voters while repelling others, into the leader of the race for the Republican nomination.

The primary also represents a make-or-break moment for establishment candidates like Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Christie, who could find it very hard to raise sufficient campaign cash to continue if they get a poor result. “Time to trade our snow boots for flip flops”. Marco Rubio, who’d all been hoping for a strong showing that would produce an influx of new donor money and attention as the election moves on to SC. Marco Rubio and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush battled for third, along with Cruz.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has been campaigning all week in New Hampshire, too, but so far hasn’t coalesced the support he rode to a victory in Iowa last week.

Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump waves has he arrives for a campaign rally Monday, Feb. 8, 2016, in Manchester, N.H.

The survey was conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks by Edison Research as voters left their polling places at 44 randomly selected sites in New Hampshire.

He closed the deal with voter Miranda Yeaton, a mother of two young daughters in Concord who said Trump scared her and that she liked Kasich’s record as governor.

Most polls had given Sanders a big edge heading into the primary, which came a little more than a week after Clinton narrowly edged out Sanders in the Iowa caucuses. He has appealed to liberal Democrats who believe Obama hasn’t done enough to address the nation’s disparity in wealth.

Republicans are much more negative about their politicians than Democrats are about theirs. She has been on the defensive, though, about her ties to Wall Street and her use of a personal email account for official business while secretary of state, which has raised questions about whether she mishandled government secrets.

In a strategy memo, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said splitting the first two contests was an outcome the campaign “long anticipated”.

Despite the competition between Sanders and Clinton, the two-person Democratic contest is a marvel of simplicity compared with the Republican race. At a campaign event on Monday, the real estate mogul gleefully repeated an audience member’s description of Cruz as a “pussy” because the senator from Texas said he was more hesitant than Trump about supporting torturing the country’s captured enemies. Even if neither candidate ultimately becomes his party’s nominee, whoever wins that nomination will have to reckon with the voter frustration they’ve tapped into.

For Trump, New Hampshire was his state to lose.

About a third of Republican voters said the most important quality in a candidate is someone who shared their values, while about the same proportion said it was someone who could bring about needed change.

Democratic voters in New Hampshire made their choices earlier than Republicans, with more than half saying they decided more than a week ago, according to the exit polls. On the Republican side, Trump maintained the lead he has held for months, 31% to next-best Rubio with 17%.

Cruz has also seized on anti-establishment sentiment with his uncompromising conservativism.

Both Clinton and Sanders went after undecided voters in New Hampshire, a state known for its independent streak (voters without party affiliations are welcome to vote in either the Democratic or Republican party).