MANCHESTER, N.H.: Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders swept to victory in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primaries, adding crucial credibility to their upstart candidacies and underscoring voters’ insistence on shaking up American politics.
Trump and Sanders entered Tuesday’s contest as favorites in New Hampshire, but needed to deliver on expectations after second-place finishes in Iowa’s leadoff caucuses. Trump appealed to voters seeking a political outsider, while Sanders was buoyed by those seeking a candidate who they felt cared about people like them.
Trump, basking in his victory Tuesday night, said that America under his leadership will “start winning again.”
Trump told supporters that he’ll be the “greatest jobs president God ever created.”
He promised that if he’s commander in chief, he’ll “knock the hell” out of the Islamic State group and negotiate what he said would be better trade deals.
A Trump presidency, he said, would mean “nobody is going to mess with us.”
Sanders said his victory meant a message was sent ‘‘that will echo from Wall Street to Washington, from Maine to California. And that is that the government of our great country belongs to all of the people and not just a handful of wealthy campaign contributors and their super PACs.”
Ohio Gov. John Kasich finished second in the Republican presidential primary.
There was a tight race for third among Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
Kasich’s campaign manager said he expects an increased flow of contributions to the candidate’s campaign after the strong showing.
Bush’s campaign didn’t think much of Kasich’s showing. Spokesman Tim Miller said Kasich “ran a one-state campaign” in New Hampshire and doesn’t have a viable path to the Republican nomination.
Miller contends that Kasich, a former congressman, “doesn’t have a constituency past New Hampshire.”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who staked his candidacy on New Hampshire, lagged behind the Republican pack as votes were being tallied.
Democrat Hillary Clinton echoed Sanders’ calls for taking on Wall Street banks and tackling income inequality, but cast herself as more prepared to make good on her policy pledges. “People have every right to be angry. But they’re also hungry, they’re hungry for solutions,” she said after congratulating Sanders on his win.
Sanders pulled from a broad coalition of New Hampshire voters, gathering a majority of votes from men, independents and voters under 45, as well as a slim majority of women. Clinton won the majority of those over 65 and those with incomes over $200,000 a year, according to early exit polls conducted by Edison Research for the Associated Press and the television networks.
Clinton’s campaign argues she will perform better as the race heads to more racially diverse states, including Nevada and South Carolina. Both New Hampshire and Iowa are overwhelmingly white states that are far less diverse than the nation as a whole.
The distinctions between what motivated Sanders and Clinton voters were sharp. The Vermont senator was backed by nine in 10 voters for whom honesty was important and eight in 10 who wanted a candidate who “cares about people like me.” Clinton, meanwhile, won support from nearly 90 percent of those who considered the “right” experience important in their decision and about 80 percent of those regarding electability as the most important factor.
Both Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, and Trump, a real estate mogul who has never held political office, have tapped into the public’s frustration with the current political system. Even if neither candidate ultimately becomes his party’s nominee, whoever does will have to reckon with those factions of voters.
Republican voters were more negative about their politicians than Democrats, with about half of GOP voters saying they felt betrayed by party officials. Trump carried a majority of those who said they wanted an outsider to win.
Nearly half of voters in the Republican primary made up their minds in the past week. However, Trump’s support appeared more sustained, with his supporters saying they made up their minds some time ago.
In a sign of Trump’s impact on the race, two-thirds of GOP voters said they supported a temporary ban on noncitizen Muslims entering the United States, a position the billionaire outlined last year amid rising fears of terrorism emanating from the Middle East.