Bernie Sanders took a tight victory over centrist former mayor Pete Buttigieg in the race to take on the United States President Donald Trump in November. Sanders declared the night "the beginning of the end" of Trump. The race moves next to the Nevada caucuses on February 22.
Former mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar finished second and third, respectively. Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren and former vice-president Joe Biden finished at the fourth and fifth places. Technology entrepreneur Andrew Yang and Colorado senator Michael Bennet dropped out of the race.
Some 280,000 Democratic voters cast ballots in the Granite State on Tuesday night, delivering 26 per cent to Sanders. With 95 per cent of the votes counted, Sanders, 78, led Buttigieg, the 38-year-old the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, by only 1.6 per cent or about 4,300 votes.
Sanders hailed a "great victory" as he thanked supporters from a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire. "This victory here is the beginning of the end for Donald Trump," he said, and promised to build an "unprecedented multi-generational, multi-racial political movement" to defeat Trump.
The result will give Sanders nine of the 24 delegates who will represent New Hampshire at the July Democratic national convention, where the party crowns a nominee based on the delegates won.
Although he had fewer votes, Buttigieg will also get nine delegates. Thanking supporters, he warned against giving in to "a polarised vision" of politics and pitched himself as the centrist to bring new voters into the party.
