NASHUA, New Hampshire — Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire primary as many had expected, but Pete Buttigieg had a strong second-place finish, and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar came in a surprise third.
NBC News called the race at 11 p.m. on Tuesday night with 86% of precincts reporting. The Vermont senator received 26.1% of the vote. Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, had 24.3%, while Klobuchar had 19.8%.
It was a major improvement for Klobuchar, who placed fifth in last week’s Iowa caucuses with 12.3% of state delegate equivalents, the traditional measure for winning that contest.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren was in fourth place with 9.4%, and former Vice President Joe Biden was in fifth place with 8.4%.
Biden and Warren both failed to meet the 15% threshold for earning nominating delegates to the Democratic National Convention, which some analysts called “embarrassing.” Each of them are looking toward the next nominating contests in states with large minority populations such as Nevada on Feb. 22 and South Carolina on Feb. 29.
Entrepreneur Andrew Yang and Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet ended their presidential bids early in the night on Tuesday as it became clear they had showings in the single digits.
Expecting a disappointing result, Biden left the state earlier on Tuesday and escaped to South Carolina, where he holds strong support.
“Tonight though, we just heard from two of 50 states. Two of them,” Biden said to the crowd in South Carolina. “Now, where I come from, that’s the opening bell, not the closing bell. The fight to end Donald Trump’s presidency is just beginning.”
Warren indicated that she is prepared to stay in the primary for a long time and scolded her rivals for going negative over the past week.
“The fight between factions in our party has taken a sharp turn in recent weeks, with ads mocking other candidates and with supporters of some candidates shouting curses at other candidates,” she said.
Klobuchar started a victory speech by poking fun at her lack of news coverage for much of her campaign.
“Hello America, I’m Amy Klobuchar, and I will beat Donald Trump,” she said.
