Sanders shocks Hillary ,Trump gains ground

Trump can rely on precedence

• Donald Trump swamped the Republican field by almost 20 points, demonstrating that his passionate, anti-establishment supporters could be relied on
• Trump can take solace in the fact that rarely is the ultimate nominee from either party not one of the top two finishers in Iowa or New Hampshire
• Since Iowa began holding the first-in-the-nation caucus in 1976, no Republican has finished second there and first in New Hampshire and failed to win the nomination 
• The Republican nomination race now bends southward, with a primary in South Carolina on Feb 20

 Bernie, not Hillary, women’s first choice

• NBC News exit polls showed Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state, won 44 per cent of the women’s vote in New Hampshire primary to 55 percent for her Democratic Party rival Bernie Sanders
• Young women contributed significantly to Clinton’s loss, and the candidate acknowledged that she struggled with young voters. She acknowledged that she needed to work hard with young people

Hillary Clinton was  handed out a shocking defeat by her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders in the New Hampshire primary while controversial Donald Trump solidified his frontrunner status in the Republican party by registering a thumping victory in the race to the White House.

Vermont Senator Sanders, 74, won the New Hampshire contest after Clinton conceded defeat. Sanders received 60 per cent of the votes as against 38 per cent by 68-year-old former secretary of state. Trump, 69, whose blunt language targeting women, Mexicans and Muslims electrified many Republicans and horrified others, defeated his nearest rival John Kasich, Governor of Ohio, by a huge margin of more than 50,000 votes.

He benefited from an unusually large field of candidates that split the vote among Kasich and former Governor Jeb Bush of Florida. Trump, a reality TV star who has never run for office, and Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist, were seen as long-shot outsiders when they launched their campaigns. Both candidates are riding on a wave of discontent with mainstream politics.

New Hampshire delivered a painful personal blow to Clinton, who squeezed out the narrowest of victories in Iowa last week. New Hampshire is the state that made her husband Bill Clinton the “comeback kid” in 1992. She had won in New Hampshire eight years ago against US President Barack Obama. Sanders described his win as “political revolution” while Clinton said that she is not giving up.

Clinton acknowledged that when she started her campaign last spring she knew that it is not going to be easy.

“Now we take this campaign to the entire country. We are going to fight for every vote in every state,” Clinton said, with the former President by her side.

• ABC News exit polls found that Sanders won 69 per cent and Clinton 56 per cent of the vote among women under 45. Among women under 30, Sanders won a staggering 82 per cent of the vote