All 100% of the precincts are now reporting:
Donald Trump clearly destroyed everyone and everything in New Hampshire. But we knew that was coming ahead of time, we just didn’t know by exactly how much he would win.
Considering I am a Cruz supporter, I was really interested in where he would land. I must say I am very happy that he beat out Jeb Bush for 3rd place, beating him by almost 2,000 votes by the end of the night.
This is even more impressive when you consider how little Ted Cruz spent in the state versus the absolutely enormous amount Jeb Bush spent:
NH Combined campaign/SuperPAC spending
$36M Bush
$18.5M Christie
$15.2M Rubio
$12.1M Kasich
$3.7M Trump
$1.8M Fiorina
$580K Cruz#NHPrimary— Stephen Hayes (@stephenfhayes) February 10, 2016
This tells you how smart Ted Cruz is when it comes to campaigning. He knows South Carolina is the real fight and chose not to blow his big cash load in New Hampshire. And now he’s ready to do serious battle for a victory in South Carolina.
I know pre-Iowa polling showed Trump with a big lead, but I would be surprised if that were still the case. I expect South Carolina will be a lot closer in polling, and maybe even Cruz pulling into the lead there. We’ll know in a day or two when fresh polling comes out of the state.
While we wait for that, here’s some of the exit polling from last night’s race on how big Trump won:
UPDATE: I updated the post to reflect the final results.