Biden wins New Hampshire primary through a write-in effort after declining to campaign there
President Joe Biden won New Hampshire’s largely symbolic Democratic primary on Tuesday, prevailing in an unusual write-in effort after he refused to campaign or appear on the state ballot.
Biden easily bested two longshot challengers, Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and self-help author Marianne Williamson, who were on the ballot along with a host of little-known names. His victory in a race he was not formally contesting essentially cements the president’s grasp on the Democratic nomination for a second term.
What to know about New Hampshire’s primary
- AP VoteCast: Trump rides to New Hampshire victory on the strength of support from the GOP base, AP VoteCast shows.
- Live updates: Read the latest from the New Hampshire primary
- Why the AP called New Hampshire’s Democratic primary for Biden. President Joe Biden has won the New Hampshire Democratic primary as a write-in candidate.
- The opioid crisis is still raging in New Hampshire. For some voters, the issue is deeply personal.
- The New Hampshire attorney general’s office is investigating reports of an apparent robocall that used artificial intelligence to mimic President Joe Biden’s voice in an attempt to suppress votes.
Biden championed changing Democratic Party rules to put South Carolina first on Feb. 3, arguing that Black Democrats, the party’s most reliable base of support, and other voters of color needed to play a larger, earlier role in the primary. But Biden also won South Carolina’s primary in 2020, reviving his campaign after a blowout loss in New Hampshire, whose electorate is whiter and older than the rest of the nation.
Biden shunned the primary as a result, but his allies organized hundreds of volunteers — and got help from a super PAC — to spread the word that New Hampshire Democrats could still write in his name.
He went on to appeal to independent and anti-Trump Republicans “who share our commitment to core values of our nation — our Democracy, our personal freedoms, an economy that gives everyone a fair shot — to join us as Americans” and back his campaign.
The contest was overshadowed by the Republican primary, where former President Donald Trump followed up his win last week in Iowa with another victory to prove that he has seized control of his party’s nomination over his last remaining challenger, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley.
New Hampshire allows unaffiliated voters to participate in either party’s primary.
