Battle shifts to New Hampshire
NASHUA, New Hampshire—Hillary Clinton tried to turn a narrow victory in Iowa into a bit of momentum for her battered Democratic campaign and Ted Cruz sought to lock in his spot at the top of the Republican field as the presidential candidates packed up on Tuesday and sped to New Hampshire.
The contenders arrived in the state and quickly scattered for a blitz of campaign rallies and television interviews. Some sought to capitalize on the results of the Iowa caucuses, while others looked to put the best face on poor showings as they settled in for the Feb. 9 New Hampshire primary—the second in the state-by-state voting to decide who will be each party’s candidate for president in November.
Clinton celebrated her narrow win in the lead-off caucuses and said she expected a tough fight in New Hampshire, noting she’ll be campaigning in the “backyard” of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, where he has been running strong for weeks.
Sanders celebrated his stronger-than-expected showing in Iowa, landing at dawn in Bow and addressing a hardy group of supporters who met him. “We’re in this for the long haul,” he told reporters as his plane flew through the night to the season’s second showdown.
Indeed, the once-unthinkably-small margin between the former first lady, senator and secretary of state over the self-declared democratic socialist suggested the Democratic contest is headed toward a protracted fight between the party’s pragmatic and progressive wings.
Clinton defeated Sanders by less than three-tenths of 1 percent, the closest in Iowa Democratic caucus history, the state party said. Sanders said his campaign was still reviewing the results and did not concede.
On the Republican side, businessman Donald Trump is looking to rebound after a second-place finish in Iowa that marked a humbling blow to the boastful mogul. Still, he has been leading the polls in New Hampshire.
Less religious, undecided
Cruz’s win provided a twist worthy of the topsy-turvy race. The Texas senator proved to be beloved by evangelicals, even if maligned by many others in his party, and adept at mounting a powerful grass-roots operation. Coming in a close third, Marco Rubio was catapulted to the top of heap of establishment candidates vying to be the party’s preferred alternative to Trump or Cruz.
For Republicans, the pivot to New Hampshire meant the still-crowded cast of candidates has turned toward a less religious and mostly undecided electorate.
New Hampshire has historically favored more moderate candidates than Iowa, and more than 40 percent of the state’s voters are not registered in any political party, giving them the power to choose which party’s primary to vote in. Polls show well over half of Republican voters have yet to make up their minds.
That may be good news for Cruz, who is hoping to avoid the conservatives’ Iowa curse. Unlike past candidates who found love in Iowa but fizzled fast, Cruz argued on Tuesday that his campaign has staying power, resources and broad appeal.
Trying to spark political momentum and fund-raising energy after only a razor-thin victory in the Iowa caucuses, Clinton is digging in for a tough fight against Sanders in next week’s primary in New Hampshire, her advisers said on Tuesday.
Closing gap
The Clinton campaign had considered shifting its focus to Nevada and South Carolina, which hold nominating contests later in February. But with the strong support of former President Bill Clinton, she decided she would help herself more by closing the gap in New Hampshire, where polls show Sanders with a double-digit lead.
The Clintons even hope she might pull off an upset win here, as she did in 2008, given their long history of campaigning in the state.
But Sanders is planning a serious battle. As he and Clinton took separate charter flights from Iowa to New Hampshire before dawn on Tuesday, Sanders and his team were making plans to spend more than $1 million on television commercials in an attempt to solidify his advantage.
He also drew about $3 million in donations in the 24 hours after his caucus speech Monday night, his campaign said. With $28 million on hand, compared with Clinton’s $38 million, Sanders advisers expressed confidence that he would not stumble like other insurgent presidential candidates of the past.
The absence of a clear political triumph in Iowa put both Democratic candidates in unexpected positions coming into New Hampshire.
Clinton had a victory speech written for delivery on Monday night in Des Moines, in which she would have virtually ignored Sanders and attacked the Republican candidates. News organizations did not declare her the winner until midday Tuesday.
While she said she was “thrilled” with the result, Clinton was now preparing to use a televised town-hall forum on Wednesday night and a televised debate on Thursday night to draw pointed contrasts with Sanders and to try to win over New Hampshire voters next Tuesday without the benefit of a momentum surge from Iowa.
Still, she cast her Iowa caucus victory, the first ever by a woman, in the best possible light.
“I can tell you, I’ve won and I’ve lost there, and it’s better to win,” Clinton told a crowd of more than 1,100 people at a community college in Nashua. Reports from the wires
