Sanders Rides High Into New Hampshire With Surge of Voter Support
Fresh off his “political revolution” in Iowa, Bernie Sanders is riding high.
The senator from Vermont raised $3 million in 24 hours since Monday’s caucus—his biggest single day yet—and, according to a new poll released Wednesday, leads Hillary Clinton by 33 points in New Hampshire, where the next presidential primary will take place on February 9.
“It’s been our best day ever” in terms of fundraising, Sanders’ communications director Michael Briggs told the Washington Post on Wednesday. Four in 10 of the donors who gave to the campaign after Sanders’ speech Monday night had never given before, Briggs said.
Sanders told Today on Wednesday, “To tell you the truth, the Iowa caucus is so complicated, it’s not 100 percent sure that we didn’t win it. But we feel fantastic. We came a long, long way in Iowa, and now we’re in New Hampshire, and we have a lot of momentum.”
And New Hampshire seems ready to take the baton. A University of Massachusetts-Lowell/7 News survey (pdf) released Wednesday found that not only does Sanders pull 61 percent there compared to Clinton’s 30 percent, but that voters in the state have long been ready to support him, as the results are virtually unchanged from the previous survey.
About 81 percent of Sanders’ supporters said they would “definitely” vote in his favor, with 19 percent saying they “could change their minds” about him, while Clinton received 75 percent “definite” support and 25 percent saying they might rethink the former secretary of state.
On Tuesday, the Iowa Democratic Party declared Clinton the caucus winner by a slim margin—49.9 to 49.6. But for many, Sanders stole the show Monday night, telling supporters in a speech that their votes “sent a very profound message to the political establishment, to the economic establishment, and by the way, to the media establishment. It is just too late for establishment politics and establishment economics.”
“What Iowa has begun tonight is a political revolution,” he said.
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