New Hampshire Primary: Polls Are Closed and Sanders Leads

All the polls have closed in New Hampshire and we’re starting to get an early sense of how the race is shaping up.

As expected, Mr. Sanders and Mr. Buttigieg are in the lead. Yet Ms. Klobuchar is mounting a surprisingly strong challenge, trailing a close third.

Hailing from just over the border with Vermont, Mr. Sanders was the overwhelming favorite in the contest. If the two Midwestern moderates keep the margins close, it could presage a longer battle for the nomination.

The early results do not look good for Ms. Warren and Mr. Biden.

Ms. Warren remains far behind, with early numbers that have to disappoint her supporters, despite an effort by her campaign to describe her path forward in terms of accumulating delegates on a district-by-district level, rather than carrying entire states. Mr. Biden, who worked hard to lower expectations, is stuck in single digits. Two brutal losses may further undercut the central argument for his candidacy: That the former vice president is the most electable in the field.

With about a quarter of precincts reporting across New Hampshire, those two once-leading candidates are sitting in a distant fourth and fifth place, both in the single digits for the percentage of the overall vote and with less than half the totals of the three leaders.

Mr. Biden all but knew the results would be bleak. He left the state earlier on Tuesday after telegraphing his bad finish in Friday’s debate.

But Ms. Warren, as a neighboring senator, had designs more recently on a strong New Hampshire finish that could serve as a springboard toward Super Tuesday. But that nearby state factor did not seem to be helping in Massachusetts-bordering Salem, where 100 percent of precincts were reported, and Ms. Warren was in fifth place with 6.9 percent of the vote.

High spirits at Sanders’s primary night party.

Supporters filled a college gymnasium for Mr. Sanders’s primary night party. Cheers echoed around the room as the big screen, which had been displaying the Sanders campaign logo, switched to CNN. Even bigger cheers came when CNN showed Mr. Sanders in first place with the votes flowing in.

Expectations in the room were high — for good reason. The state is in Mr. Sanders’s backyard, and he won the New Hampshire primary in 2016 against Hillary Clinton by 22 percentage points. Tons of reporters were here, and the fire marshal said he was expecting to let in 1,000 supporters, then assess if there was room for more. Anything less than a victory would be a major disappointment.

A stage was set up at the front of the room, with American flags and Sanders signs. Every time new numbers came in, there was more cheering.

A concession stand outside the gymnasium sold pizza and popcorn, making this reporter hungry.

No sign of Mr. Sanders yet, but some of his senior staff members were milling around. They were in a good mood.

Buttigieg supporters are cautiously optimistic.

NASHUA — At the Buttigieg headquarters here, there was a lot of optimism about the New Hampshire results and some trepidation about the future.

“I know it’s going to be more of a struggle after this,” said Tara Maden, a 49-year-old from Nashua who works for the Dartmouth-Hitchcock health care system. “He’s doing better with the minorities than he was early on and he’s getting more name recognition.”

Betty Buckley, a 52-year-old graphic designer from Pembroke, N.H., predicted second place here and trouble ahead.

“South Carolina is going to where everyone thinks he won’t do as well,” she said. “It depends on whether he can bring out people of color. They don’t know him. But a year ago he was unknown to all of us.”

Both women described themselves as independent voters who had backed Senator John McCain, a Republican, in 2008. “Though when he picked Sarah Palin, then I was out,” Ms. Maden said.

Their support for Mr. Buttigieg helps explain both why his appeal to independent and Republican voters has served him well in Iowa and New Hampshire and why he faces more hurdles in subsequent states.

Black voters dominate South Carolina’s Democratic primary electorate — they are not voters who backed Mr. McCain. The coming weeks will show whether Mr. Buttigieg can expand his coalition beyond the older, relatively centrist white voters who have propelled his rise in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Klobuchar supporters are in a celebratory mood.

CONCORD — The hotel conference room in this Courtyard Marriott just off the highway was buzzing, as supporters for Ms. Klobuchar steadily filled her primary night party since 7 p.m.

With CNN on the TV screen, the campaign playlist on the playlist and the bar open and stocked with local New Hampshire craft beers, occasional cheers accompanied shifts in returns.

For the Klobuchar campaign, landing in the top three in New Hampshire, or any primary outside Minnesota, seemed a long shot just months ago. But with a winnowed field and a dedicated moderate pitch, Ms. Klobuchar may have found a core of support in New Hampshire, which allows independents to vote in its primary.

Even before many results had been reported, some attendees felt pretty confident.

“I think third is great,” said Peter Bartlett, 72, of Concord. “She won our ward, so as far as I’m concerned, the sky is the limit.”

Warren denounces ‘harsh tactics’ in the primary race.

Ms. Warren addressed supporters early Tuesday evening, conceding that she was likely to finish in fourth place.

She sought to play down the results, suggesting a long primary fight, and she congratulated her rivals before issuing some of her most direct criticism of them yet.

Ms. Warren mentioned her fellow candidates by name, saying that she respected Mr. Sanders and Mr. Buttigieg but that they represented small factions of the Democratic Party.

She spoke about the uptick in negative advertisements in the primary and the behavior of some candidates’ supporters. Ms. Warren framed it as “harsh tactics” not befitting a Democratic nominee.

“Harsh tactics might work if you’re willing to burn down the party, in order to be the last man standing,” she said. “We will need a nominee that the broadest coalition of our party feels they can get behind.”

She also tossed a compliment to Ms. Klobuchar. “I also want to congratulate my friend and colleague Amy Klobuchar for showing just how wrong the pundits can be when they count a woman out,” she said.

Ms. Warren’s early results were disappointing for the senator of a neighboring state, once hailed as a Democratic primary front-runner. Now, instead of leading from a position of strength, she was discussing plans to cobble together delegates throughout the country.

“I’m here to get big things done,” Ms. Warren said. “Our best chance for this party and this nation is with a candidate who can do the work.”

“Our campaign is built for the long haul, and we’re just getting started.”

Ashley Tauber, 42, a supporter of Ms. Warren, said before the speech that she expected the senator to win states that were more diverse and voted later.

“New Hampshire isn’t the full picture,” she said. “She needs more diversity of income and of thought and other races of people.”

Donald Long, 58, said he was perturbed by the rise of Mr. Buttigieg.

“Now is not the time for a middle-of-the-road candidate,” he said.

Ms. Tauber jumped in: “That’s where roadkill happens.”

Voters were making last-minute decisions in Manchester.

Ward One here, in New Hampshire’s largest city, is an affluent precinct, and interviews with people emerging from their polling place Tuesday night revealed a number of highly informed voters.

Very highly informed.

It’s almost a cliché by now to say that voters in early nominating states can sound like political professionals in their discussions of electability, but, well, that’s because it’s often true.

Take Anand Natrajan and Kusum Ailawadi, a married couple who came to vote together — but not for the same candidate.

Mr. Natrajan, a scientist, said he had backed Mr. Sanders because he thinks he has “a realistic chance” to defeat President Trump. But Ms. Ailawadi, a college professor, said she had written in Mr. Bloomberg, who is not even competing in the early nominating states, because she’s skeptical that the more progressive candidates can win the general election.

“Despite my being a really left-wing liberal myself, I know that’s not where the country is,” she said.

Both said they had decided at the last minute.

Then there’s Kristi Gaynor, who works at a health care company, came out of the polls with her infant and said she had voted for Ms. Warren because she thought “she has the best chance of winning against Trump.” Ms. Gaynor chose Ms. Warren over Mr. Sanders in part because she believed Ms. Warren was stronger against Mr. Trump.

As for the president, he was facing little serious competition on the ballot, but he still had a steady flow of Republicans showing up to vote for him. And they, too, said things that could have just as easily come from political strategists.

Tiffany Cripps, an office manager, said Mr. Trump “might make me cringe in the things that he says” but quickly added that she cared more about his performance.

“The economy is great, my 401(k) is up,” Ms. Cripps explained.

Andrew Yang and Michael Bennet dropped out.

Mr. Yang, the former tech executive, and Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado ended their longer-than-long-shot bids for president on Tuesday night.

Mr. Yang made the announcement at his primary night party. Speaking to supporters here inside a ballroom in Manchester, Mr. Yang said that “endings are hard” and that he had intended to stay in the race until the end.

“I am the math guy, and it’s clear from the numbers we’re not going to win this campaign,” he said. “So tonight I’m announcing that I am suspending my campaign.”

Both Mr. Yang and Mr. Bennet had spent considerable time and resources in the state. Mr. Bennet had staked all his hopes there, holding 50 town hall events there in the 10 weeks leading up to the primary and campaigning exclusively there in the final stretch, even on the night of the Iowa caucuses.

Reporting was contributed by Alexander Burns, Sydney Ember, Reid J. Epstein, Nick Corasaniti, Katie Glueck, Astead W. Herndon, Jonathan Martin and Matt Stevens from Manchester, N.H., and Trip Gabriel and Maggie Astor from New York.