Donald Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders not only shook the establishment to is core on Tuesday night, but they did even better than late polling suggested when they won the New Hampshire primary.
According to an average of major polls tracked by RealClearPolitics, Trump was expected to get 31.2 percent of the Republican vote in New Hampshire.
With 95 percent of the vote in as of Wednesday morning, Trump did much better than expected, and had 35.3 percent of the vote, four points higher than polls suggested.
Sanders did even better. He was expected to take 54.5 percent to Clinton’s 41.2 percent in the Granite State.
But with 95 percent of the vote in, Sanders was sitting at a comfortable 60 percent, more than five points better than anticipated.
And while polling suggested that Hillary Clinton would take 41 percent of the vote, she did a bit worse than that. Clinton was sitting just above 38 percent Wednesday morning.
Among Republican candidates, the only major surprise was Sen. Marco Rubio, who was expected to come in second with 14 percent of the vote, but ended in fifth place with just 10.5 percent.
Analysts say his poor debate performance Saturday night likely contributed to his poor vote result, and that the polls didn’t have enough time to capture the effect of his lackluster debate.
Rubio’s fade allowed Kasich to surge. He was expected to be in third place with 13.5 percent, but ended up in second with 15.8 percent.
