Donald Trump is a man who loves to win. And in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, he won and he won and he won.
Donald Trump crushed his competition with every type of Republican
Libby Nelson was Vox’s editorial director, politics and policy, leading coverage of how government action and inaction shape American life. Libby has more than a decade of policy journalism experience, including at Inside Higher Ed and Politico. She joined Vox in 2014.
According to exit polls, Trump, who won New Hampshire with 35 percent of the vote, carried nearly every group with double digits. He won older voters and younger voters. He won people who care about “the issues,” 37 percent to 13 percent, and people who care about leadership, 31 percent to 20 percent.
Trump won rich voters and poor voters, conservative voters and moderate voters. He won evangelical Christians — Cruz’s base. He won voters with a college degree — who voted for Marco Rubio in Iowa.
He won voters who made up their minds on Tuesday, and he won those who made up their minds months in advance.
And in most cases, when Trump won, he won by a crushing margin.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who placed second, ran double digits behind Trump with most groups. The exceptions were moderates, where Trump got 32 percent to Kasich’s 28 percent, and voters who felt they were getting ahead financially, where Trump had an 8 percentage point advantage.
Trump didn’t win among people who think America should be welcoming
Many voters agreed with Trump's vision of a "great" America.
The New York Times exit poll found only two issues that didn’t play in Trump’s favor. Both were questions about how Americans should treat the two groups Trump hates most: Muslims and illegal immigrants.
Nearly two-thirds of New Hampshire voters agreed the US should temporarily ban Muslims who are not American citizens from entering the country. Unsurprisingly, they went for Trump, who came up with the idea.
But among the 32 percent who didn’t want a ban on Muslims, Trump came in third place, behind Kasich and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
The same was true on illegal immigration. Most New Hampshire Republicans don’t want to deport people in the US illegally. Among the 41 percent who do, Trump won handily.
A slight majority of voters said immigrants who came to the US illegally should be allowed to apply for legal status. Kasich ran strongly with that group, too. He got 23 percent of the vote.
But even there, Kasich tied with Trump, the candidate who entered the race by decrying Mexican immigrants as “rapists” who are bringing “drugs” and “crime.”
