New Hampshire’s four electoral votes will be awarded to former Vice President Joe Biden, according to projections.
In keeping with recent political tradition, the Granite State’s voters backed the Democratic Party’s presidential ticket. Not since 2000 has a Republican won the state, which was considered safe in the GOP column for decades.
But recent demographic changes, namely a transformation of the state’s economy and an influx of former Massachusetts and other New England residents, have made New Hampshire more competitive, and more Democratic, at the presidential level.
President Trump lost by a narrow 0.4% margin to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016 and had hoped to flip the state this year. Polling in the run-up to the election had Biden leading by over 11 points in the state.
Warning signs were apparent for Trump in the weeks leading up to Election Day even though his campaign remained bullish on his prospects there. The conservative editorial board of an influential New Hampshire newspaper, the Union Leader, backed Biden, making him the first Democratic presidential candidate to earn its endorsement in 100 years.
On Oct. 25, Trump gave his final pitch to New Hampshire’s voters, saying a vote for Biden was one for stringent coronavirus policies and higher taxes.
“We’ve got to put him down. We’ve got to end the fight. Our country will never be a socialist country. We have to end the fight,” he said in Londonderry. “Biden is the shutdown candidate. The Democrats are the shutdown party. They will shut down your jobs, shut down your schools, your businesses.”
