It’s likely you’ve by now heard of Bernie Sanders’ landslide win in New Hampshire after his very narrow loss in Iowa. It wasn’t that Sanders’ win was a complete surprise, because he did have several things going for him (New Hampshire’s proximity to his home state Vermont, for one), but Clinton had some advantages going for her as well (for example, the Clintons’ history of strong performance in New Hampshire).
What then did Clinton have going against her that was enough to give Sanders a win by such a large margin?
According to NPR, Clinton has a problem attracting female voters. (And former secretary of state Madeline Albright and feminist leader Gloria Steinhem berating young, female Sanders supporters the Saturday before likely didn’t help). Moreover, voters don’t trust her. There’s a wide margin here among voters to whom trust is important in voting for a candidate: 91 percent of this group found Sanders honest and trustworthy compared to 5 percent who thought so of Clinton.
Thursday night, Hillary Clinton and Sanders faced off in the latest Democratic debate.
How did the candidates fare? Well, while both candidates had their moments, several leading news outlets are leaning towards Clinton as last night’s winner.
“Part of [the reason] was Clinton’s persistent cool,” writes NPR, “which included her answer when asked why 55 percent of the women in New Hampshire had just voted for Sanders.
‘I have spent my entire adult life working toward making sure that women are empowered to make their own choices — even if that choice is not to vote for me,’ Clinton said. ‘I believe that it is most important that we unleash the full potential of women and girls in our society.’”
Furthermore, Vox writes that after spending several months trying to decide what, exactly, Clinton’s case against Sanders is (her criticisms of him have been inconsistent, failing to create a simple story as to why voters should support her over him), Clinton finally found her argument in the last debate.
“We agree that we’ve got to get unaccountable money out of politics. We agree that Wall Street should never be allowed to wreck Main Street again. But here’s the point I want to make tonight. I am not a single issue candidate, and I do not believe we live in a single issue country.”
Sanders’ debate performance after a strong win in New Hampshire was “dangerously complacent”, writes Vox. “Nothing happened Thursday night that would make a person who previously liked Clinton stop liking her, and if this was your first exposure to That Guy Who Is Running Against Hillary Clinton you wouldn’t have been blown away.”
Sanders did not address the biggest doubts Clinton supporters voice, such as his electability and understanding of foreign policy issues, and failed to add anything new to his critique of Clinton, adds Vox.
Despite the wide margin by which Clinton lost in New Hampshire, the loss didn’t cost her much by way of delegates according to NPR. Moreover, a big majority of the “superdelegates,” whose votes will count for a fifth of all votes at the Democratic convention in July, have endorsed Clinton. This means that Sanders will need to continue performing well to be able to continue competing with Clinton.
The Democrat candidates are looking to Nevada next, where voting will take place Feb. 20.
