US Prez candidate Bernie Sanders wins New Hampshire Democratic primary

MANCHESTER — Senator Bernie Sanders narrowly won the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, consolidating support on the left and fending off a late charge by two moderate rivals to claim his second strong showing in two weeks and establish himself as a formidable contender for the Democratic nomination.

Mr. Sanders had about 26 percent of the vote with 90 percent of the ballots counted, while former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., was a close second. Mr. Buttigieg split the centrist vote with Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who surged in New Hampshire to finish in third.

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Mr. Sanders’s progressive rival, finished a distant fourth in her neighboring state, and in a stinging blow to his candidacy, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. finished fifth.

The results raised immediate questions about how much longer Mr. Biden and Ms. Warren, onetime front-runners, could afford to continue their campaigns. Both had already cut back their advertising because of financial strain.

Mr. Sanders’s victory leveraged his own reliable strengths as a liberal champion against a moment of turmoil in the party’s more moderate wing: With Mr. Biden tumbling and Mr. Buttigieg and Ms. Klobuchar striving to take his place, Mr. Sanders’s grip on progressives carried him to the top of the field in both Iowa and New Hampshire.

But in both states he captured less than 30 percent of the vote, and his vote share was the lowest total ever for a winner in the primary here. Coupled with the abrupt rise of Mr. Buttigieg and Ms. Klobuchar, his modest success only underscored the churning uncertainty of the race and raised the prospect of a drawn-out nominating process that could last through the spring.

“This victory here is the beginning of the end for Donald Trump,” Mr. Sanders told jubilant supporters in Manchester, N.H., claiming “a great victory” even before the final results were in. And looking toward Nevada and South Carolina, the next two states to vote, he vowed he would “win those states, as well.”

The rise of Mr. Sanders, a democratic socialist from Vermont who remains a political independent, has distressed many centrists and traditional liberals at a time when Democratic voters are united by a ravenous desire to defeat President Trump.