Brendan Bordelon of National Review Online explores the impact of Bernie Sanders’ big victory over Hillary Clinton in this week’s New Hampshire primary.
Clinton may love the Granite State, but the feeling isn’t mutual. The once-prohibitive favorite for the Democratic nomination suffered a crushing rejection from the same voters who back in 2008 reinvigorated her collapsing campaign against Barack Obama. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders trounced her in nearly every demographic, especially young and rural voters. Many major news outlets called the race for Sanders within one minute of the polls’ closing at 8 p.m. Eastern time. …
… Pageutte blames New Hampshire’s youth for Clinton’s disastrous loss, pointing to their single-minded obsession with free college education. But the exit polls paint a different picture. Though Sanders won voters under 30 by a huge margin — 84 to 15, almost identical to his margin in Iowa — he also won the majority of women voters. And he beat Clinton by a whopping 45 points among independents.
Free college tuition wasn’t their issue. Nearly six in ten voters said they were voting for the candidate they found trustworthy and who cared about people like them. Those voters went for Sanders in a landslide — over 90 percent of voters who rated trustworthiness as most important voted for him. “It just seems like Sanders cares more about the people,” said Karen Benzekri, a mom and high-school teacher who spoke to National Review moments after casting her vote for Sanders in Nashua. “He just has more in common with everyday people on a number of issues.”