Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders speaking at an event in Phoenix, Arizona.. (photo credit:GAGE SKIDMORE)

 

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire – Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, defeating former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton to become the first Jewish candidate ever to win a presidential nominating contest. As for the GOP contest, billionaire casino tycoon Donald Trump handily won the Republican primary.

The self-described democratic socialist achieved the milestone nine days after earning a smaller one, when he became the first Jewish figure ever to win delegates in a presidential primary through his second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses.

Sanders– who has distanced himself from organized religion throughout his public life– characterized himself as both “religious” and “spiritual” at a town hall hosted by CNN over the weekend. “It’s a guiding principle in my life, absolutely,” he said.

But the senator has not mentioned that religiosity unprompted while campaigning through the Granite State– ranked among the ten least religious states in the Union in a 2014 Gallup Poll, behind his home state, neighboring Vermont, which ranks as the 49th least religious state.

His victory is a political setback for Clinton, who won in Iowa on February 1 by less than half a percentage point. She nevertheless maintains strong leads in the states to come– including in South Carolina and Nevada, the next two immediate contests.

Sanders and Clinton are in a head-to-head race after former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley dropped out of the race last week. Eight candidates remain in the Republican contest.

Trump won the nation’s first Republican primary contest on Tuesday with overwhelming support, topping the field of nine candidates after waging an unconventional campaign in the Granite State.

Early results suggest Trump won between 30-40 percent of the vote— possibly double his nearest rival.
The bombastic New York businessman— who came in second in the Iowa caucuses to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas— has predicated his campaign on the power of winning. Rallying New Hampshirites thousands at a time in some of the largest venues in the state, the candidate, leading national polls, spent little on his operation here, in a contest long accustomed to large ad buys and complex grassroots efforts.
At a rally in Manchester for his supporters, the bar was open and televisions were turned to CNN as the results came in.
“He tells it like it is,” said one voter, who waited in below-freezing temperatures for two and a half hours to enter his victory rally, “just like I do.”
As reported by The Jerusalem Post