2020 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary


The 2020 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary took place in New Hampshire, United States, on February 11, 2020, as the second nominating contest in the Democratic Party primaries for the 2020 presidential election, following the Iowa caucuses the week before. The New Hampshire primary is a semi-closed primary, meaning that only Democrats and independents may vote in this primary. New Hampshire sends 33 delegates to the national convention, of which 24 are pledged delegates allocated on the basis of the results of the primary, and the other 9 are unpledged delegates preselected independently of the primary results.
Senator Bernie Sanders won the primary with 25.6% of the vote, edging out former mayor Pete Buttigieg, who came in second place with 24.3% of the vote. Both Sanders and Buttigieg received nine delegates, while senator Amy Klobuchar unexpectedly finished in third place and received six delegates; her third-place finish has been described as "Klomentum" or “Klobucharge” by several observers. Senator Elizabeth Warren and former vice president Joe Biden both underperformed expectations, coming in fourth and fifth, respectively, and received no delegates. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang, senator Michael Bennet, and former governor Deval Patrick all suspended their presidential campaigns after their poor results in New Hampshire.
Voter turnout set a new record for New Hampshire primaries, with 300,742 ballots being cast, breaking the previous record of 287,527 set in the 2008 primary.

Procedure

The state's ballot access laws have traditionally been lenient, with prospective presidential candidates required to pay only a $1,000 fee to secure a line on the primary ballot.
Primary elections were held on Tuesday, February 11, 2020. The first polls opened at midnight local time, with the vast majority of polling places closed by 7 p.m. and a small number of cities allowed to close at 8 p.m.
In the semi-closed primary, candidates must meet a viability threshold of 15 percent at the congressional district or statewide level in order to be considered viable. The 24 pledged delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention are all allocated proportionally on the basis of the qualified results of the primary, which however is determined by each of the three sub-result categories. Of the 24 pledged national convention delegates, 8 each are allocated to each of the state's 2 congressional districts and another 3 are allocated to party leaders and elected officials, in addition to 5 at-large pledged delegates. The national convention delegation meeting will subsequently be held in Concord on April 25, to vote and elect the exact names of the five pledged at-large and three pledged PLEO delegates to send to the Democratic National Convention.
The 24 pledged delegates New Hampshire sends to the national convention as per the results of the primary on February 11, will be joined by 9 pre-determined New Hampshire PLEO unpledged delegates : 5 members of the Democratic National Committee and 4 members of Congress.

Candidates on the ballot

The following candidates were on the ballot and are listed in order of filing.
Prospective candidates began making visits to New Hampshire in 2017.
Among the more notable events of the campaign was the 2019 state convention, at which 19 of the candidates give speeches.
The eighth Democratic primary debate took place in the state on February 7, 2020.
A Lesser-Known Candidates Forum was also held, featuring candidates on the New Hampshire ballot but who were not considered major candidates.

Polling

Results

The first results in New Hampshire were released shortly after midnight from Dixville Notch. Although not on the ballot, Michael Bloomberg received three write-in votes, enough to carry the town.
Bernie Sanders won the state by a margin of around four thousand votes over Pete Buttigieg, with Amy Klobuchar placing third. Sanders and Buttigieg each received nine pledged national convention delegates while Klobuchar received six. Sanders had previously won the state in his prior pursuit of the Democratic nomination in 2016 with some 152,000 votes against Hillary Clinton.
Voter turnout set a new record for New Hampshire primaries with 300,742 ballots being cast, breaking the previous record of 287,527 set in the 2008 primary.

CandidateVotes%Delegates
Bernie Sanders76,38425.69
Pete Buttigieg72,45424.39
Amy Klobuchar58,7146
Elizabeth Warren27,4299.20
Joe Biden24,9440
Tom Steyer10,7320
Tulsi Gabbard9,7550
Andrew Yang8,3120
Michael Bloomberg 0
Deval Patrick1,2710.40
Donald Trump 1,2190.40
Michael Bennet9520.30
Joe Sestak 1520.10
Other write-ins1730
Cory Booker 1570.10
Kamala Harris 1290.00
Marianne Williamson 990.00
Steve Burke860.00
Julián Castro 830.00
John Delaney 830.00
Tom Koos720.00
Steve Bullock 640.00
Michael A. Ellinger190.00
David John Thistle530.00
Lorenz Kraus520.00
Robby Wells450.00
Henry Hewes430.00
Sam Sloan340.00
Mosie Boyd320.00
Mark Stewart Greenstein310.00
Ben Gleiberman 300.00
Thomas James Torgesen300.00
Rita Krichevsky230.00
Bill Weld 160.00
Jason Evritte Dunlap120.00
Roque De La Fuente III110.00
Raymond Michael Moroz80.00
Total298,377100%24

Results by county

Analysis

Bernie Sanders narrowly won the New Hampshire primary with 25.6% of the vote, the lowest vote share a winner of this primary has ever received, with Pete Buttigieg finishing in second. Although Sanders' victory was in line with what most New Hampshire polls had been predicting for weeks, his margin of victory was only slightly over a percentage point and the race was closer than expected. By contrast, Amy Klobuchar finished in an unexpectedly strong third place. Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden finished in fourth and fifth place, respectively, both of which were considered disappointing finishes. Geographically, Sanders won the largest cities in New Hampshire, including Manchester, Nashua, and Concord. Buttigieg kept the race close by performing strongly in the southeastern part of the state, including in the suburbs of Boston and in the nearby, more rural Lakes Region.
Exit polls showed that Sanders benefited from his strong performance among young voters as he won about half of the under-30 vote, with this group making up about 14% of the electorate. Among those under the age of 45, he won 42% of the vote; this larger group made up about a third of the electorate. Buttigieg received only 21% of the vote among those under the age of 45, but outperformed Sanders 26–17 among voters 45 and older. Both Sanders and Buttigieg lost the 45-and-older vote to Klobuchar, who received 27% of the vote in this group. Similarly, Klobuchar convincingly won among voters aged 65 and older, receiving 32% of their votes, as compared to only 14% for Sanders and 12% for Biden. Ideologically, about 60% of voters identified as either "very liberal" or "somewhat liberal", and Sanders won this group with about 33% of the vote. By contrast, among the remaining 40% of voters who identified as "moderate" or "conservative", Buttigieg and Klobuchar approximately tied with 27 and 26% of the vote, respectively.

Aftermath

Following poor showings in the New Hampshire primary, Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, entrepreneur Andrew Yang and former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick withdrew from the race.
With the end of these campaigns, the Democratic field numbered less than ten candidates for the first time since early 2019.