2008 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary

none June 2025 September 2023 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries 2008 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary New Hampshire presidential no 2004 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary 2004 2012 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary 2012 2008 01 08 File:Hillary Rodham Clinton-cropped.jpg 150x150px D4AA00 Hillary Clinton New York 9 112,404 39.1% File:Barack Obama Senate portrait crop.jpg 800080 Barack Obama Illinois 9 104,815 36.5% File:John Edwards.JPG (2151410778) (cropped).jpg FF7F2A John Edwards North Carolina 4 48,699 16.9% x245px County results x245px Municipality results Clinton: #ffeed5 30–40% #fce0b4 40–50% #f1c98b 50–60% #e6b263 60–70% #644618 100% Obama: #f5e1f5 30–40% #e1bbe1 40–50% #cf94cf 50–60% #bd6fbd 60–70% #a949a9 70–80% Edwards: #ffb59d 30–40% #FF7F2A 100% Richardson: #FFC5DA 60-70% #FF2A7F 100% IA MI 22 pledged delegates to the2008 Democratic National Convention The 2008 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary on January 8, 2008 was the first primary in the United States in 2008. Its purpose was to determine the number of delegates from New Hampshire that would represent a certain candidate at the National Convention. In a primary, members of a political party—in this case, the Democratic Party—will select the candidates to a subsequent election. Since 1920, New Hampshire has always hosted the first primaries in the entire nation. The Democratic Party's primary occurred on the same day as the Republican primary.Kathy Gill How Does The New Hampshire Primary Work? http://uspolitics.about.com/od/2008elections/tp/new_hampshire_primary.htm About.com: US Politics About 2008 2008-01-10 2008-01-10 https://web.archive.org/web/20080110104538/http://uspolitics.about.com/od/2008elections/tp/new_hampshire_primary.htm dead Hillary Clinton was the winner of the popular vote in the primary, with Barack Obama trailing in second. Clinton and Obama received an equal number of delegates to the National Convention since the percentages of their votes were close. With this win, Clinton became the first female candidate to ever win a delegate-binding primary of a major political party's presidential nominating contest.Clearing it up: Who was the first woman to win? http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/11/435330/- dailykos.com 2008 2016-09-11 After Obama became the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee on June 3, the New Hampshire Delegation to the 2008 Democratic National Convention unanimously cast its 30 formal votes for him, one of only three states to do so. Scheduling and process New Hampshire hosts the first primary in the entire nation. A state law that was passed in 1975 required that the date be set at least one week before any other similar contest. The Iowa caucuses are the only delegate-choosing event before the New Hampshire primary, but since Iowa hosts caucuses, not primaries, that is not seen as violating the law. Any registered voter may participate in New Hampshire's primary. Voters must declare a party affiliation so that they could participate in only one primary every year, not both the Democratic and Republican primaries. The voters will elect delegates to the district-level events. Candidate will only receive delegates to the national convention by receiving at least 15% of the district voters' votes. 30 delegates will be proportionally sent to the national convention. Delegate allocation thumb|left|Obama campaigning in New Hampshire Any votes cast for a candidate that did not meet the 15% threshold for votes will be discarded. 14 district delegates will be proportionally allocated to each viable presidential candidate based on the primary's results in each Congressional District. All of the district delegates are considered pledged delegates, which means that they must openly commit to a candidate before the vote and are subject to review by the candidate they represent.2008 Democratic National Convention Committee 2008 2008-02-09 How to Become a Delegate http://www.demconvention.com/how-to-become-a-delegate/ dead https://web.archive.org/web/20080213002439/http://www.demconvention.com/how-to-become-a-delegate/ 2008-02-13 Both the First Congressional District and Second Congressional District are allocated 7 district delegates each. These delegates independently represent each Congressional District; they are not affected by the results of the entire state. In addition, there are 8 more pledged delegates that are allocated based on the results of the statewide primary. Five of them would be at-large delegates to the national convention. These at-large delegates are usually selected by district-level delegates. The other 3 pledged delegates will be Party Leaders and Elected Official (PLEO) delegates. PLEO delegates usually consist of members of the Democratic National Committee, Democratic members of Congress, Democratic Governors, and former Democratic Party leaders. While the 14 district delegates and 8 statewide delegates are pledged to represent a candidate, 8 more National Convention delegates will be considered unpledged. 7 of them are additional PLEO delegates, which consist of 4 Democratic National Committee members, 2 members of Congress, and 1 Governor. An additional unpledged delegate will be considered the add-on delegate. The add-on delegate is selected by a committee of district-level delegates.Berg-Andersson Richard E. New Hampshire Democrat Presidential Nominating Process The Green Papers 2008-05-15 http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P08/NH-D.phtml 2008-05-15 Pre-primary polling, predictions, and events Statewide opinion polling for the January 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries#New Hampshire 600px|right|Pre-primary opinion polling statistics throughout the campaign season. Five days before the New Hampshire primary, candidates competed at caucuses in Iowa. Barack Obama hoped that he would win these primaries the same way he defeated Hillary Clinton at the Iowa caucuses. Since his victory, he had attracted several supporters, which increased his chances at winning this primary. Mara Liasson Siegel, Robert What's at Stake in the New Hampshire Primary https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17938531 National Public Radio NPR and the Associated Press 2008-01-08 2008-01-09 Likewise, Clinton was struggling to overcome setbacks after she came in third place at the caucuses in Iowa. Susan Page Poll: Obama, McCain leap ahead in N.H. USA Today 2008-01-07 2008-01-10 https://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-01-06-poll-newhampshire_N.htm A series of pre-primary polls showed that Obama enjoyed a significant lead. Clinton was coming second, and John Edwards third. Average polling during the period of January 5 to January 7, 2008 by Real Clear Politics indicated Obama's support at 38.3%, Clinton at 30.0%, Edwards at 18.3%, and Richardson at 5.7%. These results indicated an 8.3% lead for Obama. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/nh/new_hampshire_democratic_primary-194.html New Hampshire Democratic Primary Real Clear Politics 2008-01-08 Real Clear Politics 2008-01-09 On the other hand, a USA Today/Gallup poll indicated that Barack Obama enjoyed a 13-point lead over Hillary Clinton three weeks after they were tied in the pre-primary polls at New Hampshire. Even back in December 2007, Clinton was leading in the polls with 47%, and Obama had 26%. Clinton's aides responded to this by saying that she has the money to continue a national campaign. Former President Bill Clinton's campaign failed in the first five state primaries and caucuses when he ran in 1992. Despite these circumstances, Bill Clinton not only won the Democratic nomination, but he won the election. The USA Today/Gallup poll was held on January 4, 2008. The conductors of this poll surveyed 778 New Hampshire residents who most-likely were going to attend the Democratic primaries. The survey was conducted after news from the Iowa caucuses had been reported. In the following table, the candidates' support on January 4 is compared with the results of the USA Today/Gallup poll from mid-December 2007 in New Hampshire. Candidate Percentage (December) Percentage (January) Barack Obama32%41% Hillary Clinton32% 28% John Edwards 18% 19% Bill Richardson 8% 6% No other candidate had higher than 3% support in New Hampshire. Each figure has a margin of error of ±4%. Obama's 13-point lead was outside that margin. Mark Memmott Lawrence, Jill Obama up by 13 points, McCain up by 4 in USAT/Gallup Poll in N.H. http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2008/01/obama-up-by-13.html USA Today 2008-01-06 2008-01-10 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20080116202229/http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2008/01/obama-up-by-13.html 2008-01-16 A US Census in 2006 reported that the population of New Hampshire was 1,314,895. 356,897 did not declare a party affiliation. These independent voters make up 44 percent of the New Hampshire electorate and could have voted in either the Democratic primary or the Republican Party's primary, but couldn't have voted in both. Democratic voters made up a smaller proportion.http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5431385.html Tuesday could be independents' day Bennett Roth chron.com Houston Chronicle 2008-01-07 2008-01-10 216,005 people have registered as a Democrat. These statistics are important because in 2004, the New Hampshire independents leaned towards the Democratic side in favor of then-candidate John Kerry. Since then, New Hampshire has become more Democratic, replacing their Republican governor and state legislature with a government led by Democratic politicians. However, the people of New Hampshire are divided into several smaller regions, so the entire state as a whole wouldn't have been expected to act in a uniform manner. Joanna Weiss Farnsworth, Amy Many faces of New Hampshire http://archive.boston.com/interactive/graphics/080105_nh_profile/ 2008 boston.com NY Times 2008-01-10 New Hampshire campaign office hostage-taking Hostage taker surrenders peacefully at Hillary Clinton's New Hampshire campaign office On November 30, 2007, a man identified as 47-year old Leeland Eisenberg,http://wbztv.com/topstories/local_story_334132330.html Clinton Office Hostage Situation Ends Peacefully WBZ-TV 2007-11-30 2007-11-30 June 2016 medicmedic armed with road flares strapped to his chest which he claimed were a bomb, entered a Clinton presidential campaign office in Rochester, New Hampshire.http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/14737959/detail.html Hostages Held By Armed Man At Clinton Office WCVB-TV 2007-11-30 2007-11-30 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20071201155503/http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/14737959/detail.html 2007-12-01 He took hostage the five people in it, and asked for Clinton, believing she could assist him in gaining psychiatric help.http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/03/clinton.office/index.html Clinton hostage suspect charged with 6 felony counts CNN 2007-11-30 2007-12-03 Two hostages were released early on, a woman and her infant. Other hostages were released sporadically. The standoff ended with Eisenberg's surrender about five hours after the incident began.https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna22043358 Hostages standoff ends at Clinton N.H. office Associated Press November 30, 2007 2007-11-30 At the time of the event, Clinton was in the Washington D.C. area, scheduled to speak at a Democratic National Committee meeting in Vienna, Virginia; she canceled her appearances at public events for the remainder of the day.http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iyFzZ-0fXmPDB4so7Bc_ledKfdIQD8T895R01 Man Takes Hostages at Clinton Office Associated Press Beverley Wang Beverley Wang November 30, 2007 2007-11-30 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20071203082301/http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iyFzZ-0fXmPDB4so7Bc_ledKfdIQD8T895R01 2007-12-03 That evening she flew to Rochester in order to meet with and comfort the hostages,http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2007/12/clinton_rushes_to_comfort_sieg.html Clinton rushes to comfort sieged campaign workers Jill Zuckman 2007-11-30 The Baltimore Sun 2007-12-01 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20071202124512/http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2007/12/clinton_rushes_to_comfort_sieg.html 2007-12-02 praise the law enforcement officials who handled the situation, and vow not to change her campaign style due to the incident.http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5isUjR2dH6vcFiMwdZFJu6HYZ-Oeg Clinton vows no let up in campaign after hostage-taking Agence France-Presse 2007-12-01 2007-12-01 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20071202212640/http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5isUjR2dH6vcFiMwdZFJu6HYZ-Oeg 2007-12-02 Results Results of the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries Key: Withdrewprior to contest 2008 New Hampshire Democratic Presidential Primary Results PartyCandidateVotesPercentageDelegates Projected national delegates Democratic Hillary Clinton 112,404 39.09% 9 9 Democratic Barack Obama 104,815 36.45% 9 13 Democratic John Edwards 48,699 16.94% 4 0 Democratic Bill Richardson 13,239 4.6% 0 0 Democratic Dennis Kucinich 3,891 1.35% 0 0 Democratic Joe Biden 638 0.22% 0 0 Democratic Mike Gravel 404 0.14% 0 0 Democratic Richard Caligiuri 253 0.09% 0 0 Democratic Christopher Dodd 205 0.07% 0 0 Democratic Kenneth Capalbo 108 0.04% 0 0 Democratic D. R. Hunter 95 0.03% 0 0 Democratic William Keefe 51 0.02% 0 0 Democratic Tom Laughlin 47 0.02% 0 0 Democratic Randy Crow 37 0.01% 0 0 Democratic Michael Skok 32 0.01% 0 0 Democratic Ole Savior 30 0.01% 0 0 Democratic Henry Hewes 17 0.01% 0 0 Democratic William Hughes 16 0.01% 0 0 Democratic Caroline Killeen 11 0.00% 0 0 Democratic Tom Koos 10 0.00% 0 0 Democratic Dal LaMagna 8 0.00% 0 0 Democratic Write-in candidates 2,517 0.87% 0 0 TotalsDemocraticAll Candidates287,527100.00%2222 thumb|right|200px|Hillary Clinton greets supporters after her NH Primary win.Hillary Clinton led Barack Obama by 20 points in pre-primary polls in New Hampshire prior to the Iowa caucuses, but had fallen behind Obama by 13 points in the week prior to the New Hampshire primary. However, she rebounded to get more votes than Obama in the New Hampshire primary. She ultimately led the primaries by 3 percent. At her address to New Hampshire after the primary, her supporters called her the "comeback kid." According to exit polls, female voters and elderly voters helped her win this particular race. In the Iowa caucuses, Obama received 35 percent of the female vote, while Clinton only received 30 percent. In New Hampshire, however, 45 percent supported Clinton, compared to 36 percent for Obama. Also during the primary, older voters outnumbered younger voters; 67 percent of Democratic voters were over the age of 40, and most of them supported Clinton. Bill Schneider Clinton and McCain the comeback kids CNNPolitics.com Cable News Network 2008-01-09 A turnout of nearly 288,000 people was even higher than expected, and was greater than the number of New Hampshire residents who voted for Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election.Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections Bill Richardson withdrew from the race after placing 4th in both the New Hampshire primary with less than 5 percent of the vote and the Iowa caucuses with less than 2 percent of the vote. He made this decision as he returned to his home state, New Mexico, on January 9, 2008, to meet with his top advisors.Leslie Wayne Richardson Said to Be Dropping Out https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/us/politics/10richardson.html?ref=politics The New York Times 2008-01-10 2008-01-19 Recount Most New Hampshire voters cast their votes on Diebold optical-scan systems, which are vulnerable to tampering, leading election-reform activists to immediately begin examining the results from New Hampshire, claiming later to find evidence suggesting fraud.Farhad Manjoo http://machinist.salon.com/feature/2008/01/11/new_hampshire_vote/ Was the New Hampshire vote stolen? Machinist Salon Media Group 2008-01-11 2008-01-12 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20080113131716/http://machinist.salon.com/feature/2008/01/11/new_hampshire_vote/ 2008-01-13 The story initially was reported only online, but was later acknowledged by mainstream news outlets. Most observers have concluded that demographic trends influence both a community's means of counting ballots, and which candidates the community is likely to support.http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2008/01/11/experts_skeptical_of_nh_ballot_count_conspiracy_theory/ Experts skeptical of N.H. ballot-count conspiracy theory The Boston Globe Beverley Wang AP 2008-03-14 2008-01-11May 2026 medicmedic On January 10, 2008, presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich requested and paid for a recount to make sure that all of the votes in the Democratic primary were counted - Republican candidate Albert Howard also requested a recount in the Republican primary.http://news.bostonherald.com/news/2008/view.bg?articleid=1066072 Kucinich claim spurs N.H. recount Boston Herald AP 2008-03-14 https://web.archive.org/web/20080311134002/http://news.bostonherald.com/news/2008/view.bg?articleid=1066072 2008-03-11 dead Kucinich noted the difference between pre-primary polls which showed that Obama would win, and Clinton's win in the actual election. In addition, Kucinich cited reports circulating throughout the internet that alleged disparities around the state between hand-counted ballots, which tended to favor Obama, and machine-counted ones, which seemed to favor Clinton. He did not expect the recount to dramatically change his results in the election,N.H. Primary Democratic Re-Count Under Way wbztv.com CBS 2008-01-16 2008-02-09 http://wbztv.com/racenh/NH.Primary.Recount.2.630861.html https://web.archive.org/web/20080119091751/http://wbztv.com/racenh/NH.Primary.Recount.2.630861.html 2008-01-19 but in an interview with Fox News, Kucinich said "he requested the recount out of concern for the integrity of the process and not out of loyalty to any one candidate." State officials, however, strongly believe the results of the primary were very accurate.http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hI6F-VhnmJPDIgAFnfu6VPHpqapAD8U3EBKG0 Kucinich Seeks NH Dem Vote Recount Stephen Frothingham Google News Associated Press 2008-01-11 2008-01-12 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20080113035523/http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hI6F-VhnmJPDIgAFnfu6VPHpqapAD8U3EBKG0 2008-01-13 New Hampshire has not conducted a statewide recount in a presidential primary since the 1980 primary.Associated Press New Hampshire to Conduct Recount of Presidential Primary You Decide 2008 Fox News Network 2008-01-11 2008-01-29 http://youdecide08.foxnews.com/2008/01/11/new-hampshire-to-conduct-recount-of-presidential-primary/ https://web.archive.org/web/20080115103446/http://youdecide08.foxnews.com/2008/01/11/new-hampshire-to-conduct-recount-of-presidential-primary/ 2008-01-15 dead The recount began on January 16, 2008 after New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner received $27,000 from Kucinich. The first ballots to be counted came from Manchester. The campaigns and fair elections groups had the right to see and approve every ballot. Kucinich was able to stop the recount at any time and receive a refund for the balance of the costs of the recount, since a recount in the entire state would require $70,000.Associated Press Primary re-count begins Boston.com http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2008/01/16/primary_recount_begins/ https://web.archive.org/web/20081011060812/http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2008/01/16/primary_recount_begins/ dead October 11, 2008 2008-01-16 2008-02-09 In some of the towns and wards, the vote counts were identical. Vote count changes were made in places where voters did not follow directions and marked ballots that were impossible for the machines to read. The largest example of vote miscounting was Ward 5 in Manchester, where votes for the top candidates dropped significantly after the recount. Clinton's total went from 683 to 619, Obama's went from 404 to 365, and other candidates saw similar drops.http://www.wmur.com/politics/15087001/detail.html Human Error, Not Machine, Found During Recount WMUR 2008-01-18 2008-03-14 https://web.archive.org/web/20110522142648/http://www.wmur.com/politics/15087001/detail.html 2011-05-22 dead Excluding the results of Ward 5 the error rate was less than 1%.http://www.nolanchart.com/article1280.html Diebold Vote Error in New Hampshire < 00.948% Left Coast Views William Westmiller 2008-02-05 2008-03-14 July 14, 2011 https://web.archive.org/web/20110714191534/http://www.nolanchart.com/article1280.html dead The official explanation for the discrepancies in Ward 5, which resulted in gains of nearly 10% by each of the top candidates, was that a poll worker added the vice presidential and presidential totals before reporting. These differences did not occur in the GOP recount where the votes for all candidates were exactly the same except for Mitt Romney who received 1 extra vote. Due to insufficient funding, the recount was halted on January 23, 2008.http://www.sos.nh.gov/recountresults-dem.htm Recount 2008-02-23 https://web.archive.org/web/20080513011104/http://www.sos.nh.gov/recountresults-dem.htm 2008-05-13 dead The Deputy Secretary of State, David Scanlan, estimated that the Republican recount cost $57,600 and the Democratic recount, with more votes cast, cost $67,600. http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?articleId=ac275a70-9424-467c-8e4d-5517a7000163 New Hampshire Union Leader Recounts aren't cheap Tom Fahey 2008-01-15 2008-03-14 2011-05-22 https://web.archive.org/web/20110522193005/http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?articleId=ac275a70-9424-467c-8e4d-5517a7000163 dead Quin Monson, an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at BYU, commented: "There are people that do not trust the technology. His (Dennis Kucinich's) request for the recount is likely a response to that crowd."http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/66978 New Hampshire Recount Garners Little Attention BYU Newsnet Erica Teichert 2008-01-16 2008-03-14 https://web.archive.org/web/20080220091738/http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/66978 2008-02-20 dead See also 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries 2008 New Hampshire Republican presidential primary New Hampshire primary References External links New Hampshire Democratic Party State Official Website Ryter Report on electoral irregularities New Hampshire Democratic 2008