When your rate of Evangelical voter dives by a third, you know it’s gonna hurt candidates like Cruz and Carson. New Hampshire is filled with Godless heathens. ~ soopermexicanAmong the hopeless states, is there any wonder that moderately blue New Hampshire has gone for Trump and Sanders? Nope. And laughably, Kasich in second among supposed GOP voters!
It's obvious that they like their Republicans malleable, and their Democrats more so (i.e., socialistic!).Only 23 pct of NH GOP voters are born-again or evangelical, in exit polls. Compare Iowa: 62 pct.— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) February 9, 2016
And though there's somewhat of a myth with independent voters, even that comes with a caveat...
Don't we know it! But even while the Live Free or Die motto has lurched to 'Free Stuff or Die' in the Granite State, the conservative Cruz astonishingly managed to pull third place after the Big Business loudmouth and the moderate suck-up (the latter of whom is going nowhere). Though they're vastly outnumbered, the sensible citizens of Faith and Freedom stepped up, and we say, "THANK YOU!"FiveThirtyEight: New Hampshire: the land of pot roast, fleece-lined jeans and independent-minded voters. Truisms about freethinking New England voters are trotted out every primary year thanks to New Hampshire’s system, which allows unaffiliated voters to participate in either party’s primary so long as they register at the door. (And they can make sure their voting status reverts to independent on the way out — they’ve thought of everything, these Yankees.)
This year’s horse race will place the indie vote on no stumpier a pedestal than usual, though perhaps more idiosyncratically, the most pitched battle on the GOP side is over who will place or show, not necessarily who will win. ... undeclared voters may affect who finishes second, third and fourth on the GOP side...
TexasTribune: A week after his win in the Iowa caucuses, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz was jockeying with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for third place in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday night, finding himself among a tight pack of also-rans swamped by real estate magnate Donald Trump.Bumping'em out one by one. Now on to South Carolina, Nevada and the SEC!
The finish said relatively little about the state of Cruz's campaign — there were a few delegates to be won here, and Cruz never invested much time or energy. Instead, he appeared to be displacing other candidates who did bet their futures on the Granite State, a possible death blow to at least one or two campaign rivals.
New Hampshire is a moderate state, not a traditionally receptive place for Cruz's evangelical political style. But the junior Texas senator was able to capitalize on a glut of establishment-minded candidates by consolidating enough of the...libertarian-minded conservative voters to complete a substantive finish.
#CRUZ2016!
Related links: Why Ted Cruz is now the Republican front-runner
New Hampshire is a fraud
Cruz Mocks Fox News’ Reporting on Rubio: ‘Looking Forward’ to ‘Wall-to-Wall Coverage’ of My Third-Place Finish
