See results on the Democratic and Republican primaries.
NASHUA — President Biden’s name wasn’t on the New Hampshire primary ballot Tuesday, but his supporters nonetheless hoped Democrats would deliver a big write-in victory for him in an unusual political undercard to the Republican race.
The Associated Press projected Biden as the winner just after the last polls closed. With 87 percent of the precincts reporting Wednesday morning, Biden had 52 percent of the vote and Minnesota Representative Dean Phillips had 20 percent. About 14 percent of the ballots were unprocessed write-ins, and the vast majority of those were likely for Biden.
“I want to thank all those who wrote my name in this evening in New Hampshire. It was a historic demonstration of commitment to our democratic process,” Biden said in a statement. Donald Trump’s victory in the Republican primary made it clear that he will be the party’s nominee, Biden added, “and my message to the country is the stakes could not be higher.”
Running for reelection with token opposition, Biden was expected to win handily. A Jan. 9 Suffolk University/Boston Globe/USA Today poll found nearly two-thirds of Democrats planned to write in his name. But his effort to bump the state’s primary from its longtime status in favor of South Carolina complicated a reelection campaign already burdened with lack of enthusiasm and concerns about his age as the oldest president ever.
After New Hampshire officials kept their primary in its traditional slot, Biden chose not to officially run. But because the state’s four electoral votes may be crucial to his bid for a second term, Democrats in the state, with help from elsewhere, launched a low-budget effort to convince voters to write-in his name.
“Despite President Biden’s absence from the ballot, Granite Staters still turned out in robust numbers to show their support for the great work that the Biden-Harris Administration has done to grow the economy, protect reproductive freedoms, and defend our democracy,” Ray Buckley, chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, said in a statement. He thanked “the hundreds of grassroots organizers who successfully coordinated an historic write-in campaign.”
For Democrats and independents alike, the feelings on Biden run the gamut. Some worry about the 81-year-old president’s ability to serve another four years, others about his commitment to New Hampshire after he all but ignored its primary. And some simply supported him because he’s not Trump.
”I stood there for a couple minutes [before voting]. It was tough,” Jack Dvareckas, a 76-year-old retired real estate agent and Democrat, said of his ballot box experience Tuesday in Nashua. He ultimately wrote-in Biden’s name because there was “nobody else to choose from” even though the age of both leading presidential contenders — Trump is 77 — gives him pause.
”They’re both more senile than I am,” Dvareckas said. “And I still forget my keys.”
Barb Stefaney, also a 76-year-old Democrat, said she voted for Phillips— one of the two better-known but still extreme long-shot Democrats whose names were on the ballot along with several other virtual unknowns — because she believes the country “needs new blood.”
”I’m roughly their age group,” the Nashua resident said of Biden and Trump. “We’re not going to be here much longer.”
Stefaney said she was also put off by Biden’s decision to skip New Hampshire.
”The way he disregarded the primary [here] . . . I felt it was kind of disrespectful,” she said. “I felt he should have gotten his message out here.”
Biden did not campaign in the state, leaving the write-in effort to a super PAC, which reported spending $1.5 million through Monday, and Democratic surrogates in hopes of avoiding a disappointing victory margin. In a statement released Tuesday night by leaders of the write-in effort, New Hampshire state Senator Donna Soucy said the victory shows the state “strongly stands” behind Biden.
In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson got only 49 percent in a write-in campaign, nearly losing to an upstart anti-Vietnam War challenger. Not long after, Johnson decided not to run for reelection.
At least 12 senior Biden administration officials also have appeared in New Hampshire in recent weeks, technically just to tout his policies since they are prevented by federal law from campaigning while on official business. But their presence amounted to a shadow campaign to spread the word about how Biden is helping the state through initiatives like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Biden spent Tuesday afternoon at a rally for “reproductive freedom” in Manassas, Va., with Vice President Kamala Harris, highlighting the abortion rights issue as he focused on the November election while the polls in New Hampshire were still open.
“Let there be no mistake, the person most responsible for taking away this freedom in America is Donald Trump,” Biden said in speech interrupted several times by pro-Palestinian protesters. “I believe 2024 is going to be the most important election since 1864. The reasons are clear. Democracy’s on the ballot. Freedom’s on the ballot.”
The Jan. 9 poll showed Biden leading Trump by roughly 7 percentage points in a potential rematch in November. Biden won the state by nearly an identical margin in 2020. Trump also lost the state in 2016, but by just 0.3 percentage point.
Faithe Miller Lakowicz, a 40-year-old Democrat from Concord, said she wrote in Biden’s name despite the “very low energy” New Hampshire race.
”It’s like I’m more invested [in his candidacy] than he is here,” she said of Biden.
For many voting in the Democratic primary, the specter of Trump returning to the White House loomed as large, if not larger, than anything else.
”I’m hoping there are enough good human beings out there who see Trump is not the one to lead us,” said Sable Grayson, a 48-year-old Democrat from Concord who said she proudly wrote in Biden’s name.
Cess Weintraub, an 81-year-old independent voter from Nashua, said the decision to vote for Biden was easy.
“Because he’s a good president. Enough of this nonsense,” she said. If Trump is elected, she said, she fears losing many of the freedoms that have defined America.
”It’s absolutely horrifying,” she said. “We’re going to lose our country.”
The Democratic National Committee has warned that it won’t recognize New Hampshire’s delegates chosen Tuesday at this summer’s nominating convention as punishment for going before South Carolina’s Feb. 3 contest. The DNC publicly called the New Hampshire primary “meaningless,” causing the state’s attorney general to send the organization a cease-and-desist letter warning of potential voter suppression.
Tal Kopan of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Matt Stout can be reached at matt.stout@globe.com. Follow him @mattpstout. Jim Puzzanghera can be reached at jim.puzzanghera@globe.com. Follow him @JimPuzzanghera.