President Joe Biden won the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, according to a projection from The Associated Press, after a concerted write-in campaign carried him to victory over two long-shot Democratic challengers.

What You Need To Know

  • President Joe Biden won the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, according to a projection from The Associated Press

  • Biden was not on the ballot in New Hampshire after a dispute with the DNC over the primary calendar, but a write-in campaign put him over the top

  • It's the clearest signal yet of a likely 2020 election rematch against former President Donald Trump, who won the GOP primary Tuesday over former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley

  • While voters across New Hampshire made their voices heard Tuesday, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris held a rally in Virginia focused on abortion, a major issue for Democrats heading into the election

Alongside former President Donald Trump’s projected win in the Granite State on Tuesday night over former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, the results paint the clearest picture yet of a likely 2020 election rematch.

While neither Biden nor his campaign have acknowledged the primary, his campaign manager did release a statement addressing Trump’s win in New Hampshire.

“Tonight’s results confirm Donald Trump has all but locked up the GOP nomination, and the election denying, anti-freedom MAGA movement has completed its takeover of the Republican Party,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement.

“While we work toward November 2024, one thing is increasingly clear today: Donald Trump is headed straight into a general election matchup where he’ll face the only person to have ever beaten him at the ballot box: Joe Biden,” she added.

While voters across New Hampshire made their voices heard Tuesday, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris held a rally in Virginia focused on abortion, a major issue for Democrats heading into the election.

The incumbent president’s name was not on the ballot on Tuesday due to a dispute with the Democratic National Committee after the party voted to shake up its primary lineup last year, punting the Granite State from its long-held first-in-the-nation spot to put South Carolina first instead, a move that Democrats said is aimed at empowering Black and other minority voters. 

Biden championed that move; South Carolina is also the state considered to have turned the tide in a positive direction for Biden in 2020 after disappointing results in Iowa and New Hampshire. 

"The Democrats decided to move their first primary to South Carolina because it more closely reflects who the Democratic Party is, and who are the most active members of the Democratic Party,” Todd Belt, Professor and Director of Political Management at George Washington University, told Spectrum News. “It's not a bunch of moderate to conservative white people up in New Hampshire. It's more like the electorate that is in South Carolina."

But officials in New Hampshire bucked the DNC’s new plan, pointing to a state law requiring it to hold the nation’s first opening primary contest.

As such, Biden's campaign did not submit his name for the ballot, the state’s delegates will not be seated at August’s Democratic convention and the results will not count toward his nomination.

But thanks to a grassroots write-in campaign backed by a super PAC that raised $1.5 million, the incumbent president triumphed over two Democratic challengers: Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and author Marianne Williamson.

“Even though the DNC made a terrible decision, we see strong energy for a write-in Joe Biden campaign, because Joe Biden has done what independent voters in New Hampshire have asked, which is work across the aisle to deliver important bipartisan results to the people of our country,” Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. said in an interview with NBC’s "Meet the Press" on Sunday. 

“It's critical that we unify around President Biden," California Rep. Ro Khanna, who was on the ground in New Hampshire over the weekend, said in an interview with Spectrum News on Sunday. "We know he's gonna be facing Donald Trump, the stakes are so high, and his winning in New Hampshire is going to matter to set the tone for the campaign." 

Phillips spent extensive time in New Hampshire as he sought to present an alternative to Biden, but came up short in his effort to win over Granite State voters.

Spectrum News' Maddie Gannon and Joseph Konig contributed to this report.