Bernie supporters shouldn’t celebrate just yet: He’s still no lock in future primaries
As expected, Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire Democratic primary Tuesday night, picking up enough undecided voters, in a high turnout election, to outperform his polls going in the primary. It was an important victory, after his slim loss in Iowa.
Of course, both Iowa and New Hampshire are demographically different than the rest of the country — far whiter, more rural — and even more so compared to the Democratic coalition. The real test of the Sanders campaign is whether the pitch for democratic socialism will resonate when facing more diverse voter bases in Nevada and South Carolina and going into the onslaught of primary elections in March.
Unfortunately, there’s not much to learn from the New Hampshire results that would help predict the Sanders fortunes from here on out. Exit polls show that self-declared independent voters handed Sanders his victory.
Dialing a little deeper in, it’s clear that the Sanders coalition in New Hampshire diverges from the typical Democratic voting base in significant ways, being younger, more likely to identify as “independent,” and more willing to differ from the majority of Democrats on major issues like gun control.
http://www.salon.com/2016/02/10/bernie_sanders_rides_surge_of_independents_to_victory_in_new_hampshire_but_its_no_lock_theyll_be_there_for_him_in_future_primaries/
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