New Hampshire
Bernie Sanders won, as expected. Elizabeth Warren can probably be counted out at this point. Joe Biden remains in the race only because he’s widely expected to do better in states with significant minority populations (Nevada and South Carolina, and not Iowa or New Hampshire) but he’s in real trouble. Pete Buttigieg placed a close second and Amy Klobuchar had a respectable showing.[1] The rest probably have no business even still being in the race, and yes, that includes the billionaires Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer. (Andrew Yang and Michael Bennet have now dropped out.[2])
At this point, I’m expecting the race to come down to Sanders versus Buttigieg, but the latter has real problems with Black voters based on his record as mayor of South Bend,[3] and while Sanders probably deserves to do better outside the straight while male demographic than he does, I’m seeing some real rumblings of discontent.
This isn’t just that the race has shed people of color and women, though it has.[4] It’s that Sanders has drawn support from out-and-out racists and sexists, and that he failed to recognize, let alone respond to, sexism in his 2016 campaign.[5] There is a “Never Bernie” faction out there that isn’t neoliberal; I don’t know how it will translate electorally.
Hence my hedges in the first paragraph: There are wild cards still in play. And yeah, I’m still really afraid Donald Trump wins in November.
Aaron Blake, “Winners and losers from the New Hampshire primary,” Washington Post, February 11, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/11/takeaways-new-hampshire-primary/
- [1]Aaron Blake, “Winners and losers from the New Hampshire primary,” Washington Post, February 11, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/11/takeaways-new-hampshire-primary/↩
- [2]Aaron Blake, “Winners and losers from the New Hampshire primary,” Washington Post, February 11, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/11/takeaways-new-hampshire-primary/↩
- [3]Matt Pearce, “Black residents of South Bend unload on Mayor Pete Buttigieg,” Los Angeles Times, June 23, 2019, https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-2020-pete-buttigieg-mayor-police-shooting-black-voters-20190624-story.html↩
- [4]Aaron Blake, “Winners and losers from the New Hampshire primary,” Washington Post, February 11, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/11/takeaways-new-hampshire-primary/↩
- [5]David Benfell, “Bernie Sanders should not have endorsed Cenk Uygur in the first place,” Not Housebroken, December 14, 2019, https://disunitedstates.org/2019/12/14/bernie-sanders-should-not-have-endorsed-cenk-uygur-in-the-first-place/; David Benfell, “All of us,” Not Housebroken, January 26, 2020, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/01/26/all-of-us/↩