Bernie Sanders swept to a huge victory today by defeating Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire Democratic primary for US presidential nominee while Donald Trump solidified the frontrunner status in the Republican party by scoring a big win in the race to the White House.
Vermont Senator Sanders, 74, won the New Hampshire contest after Clinton conceded. With one third of the Democratic votes being counted, Sanders had received 59 per cent of the votes as against 38 per cent received by 68-year-old Clinton.
Trump, 69, was leading runner up John Kasich, the Ohio Governor, by an inaccessible more than 18,000 votes and a margin of 18 per cent. Republicans, including Texas Senator Ted Cruz, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Florida Senator Marco Rubio are now battling for a third-place finish. With more than one-third of the votes counted, Cruz, who won the Iowa Caucus, had received 12 per cent of the votes, while Bush was following him closely with 11 per cent.
Trump, a brash billionaire reality TV star who has never run for office, and Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist, were seen as long-shot outsiders when they launched their campaigns. Their victories reflect deep bipartisan discontent at professional politicians and suggest that both the Democratic and Republican races will now be long struggles that could stretch well into the spring, CNN said.
Trump appeared on stage with a beaming smile on his face and gave a thumbs-up to his crowd of supporters. “We are going to make America great again,” Trump said in his victory speech which he began by thanking his late parents, late elder brother and other family members. Trump who is leading in all the national polls with impressive margin had received a stunning defeat at the hands of Cruz, the Senator from Texas, at the Iowa Caucus last week.
The race to White House now moves to South Carolina. “He (Sanders) wants to give away the country folks, we are not going to let this happen,” Trump told a cheering audience as he criticised the top Democratic winner in New Hampshire
(Feature Image Source: Reuters)