Why AP called New Hampshire for Biden: Race call explained

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has won the New Hampshire Democratic primary as a write-in candidate.

The Associated Press declared Biden the winner based on an analysis of initial vote returns where write-in votes have been tabulated by candidate.

The early returns confirm the findings of AP’s VoteCast survey of likely Democratic primary voters, which found an overwhelming majority of write-in voters supporting the incumbent president. Together, they show that Biden has an insurmountable lead over the rest of the Democratic field.

Biden decided not to put his name on the New Hampshire ballot, since the state’s primary violates Democratic Party rules. It was Biden’s idea to bump the state from its prized first-in-the-nation primary calendar slot in favor of South Carolina, which resuscitated his struggling campaign in 2020. Instead, his supporters are backing him as a write-in candidate.

The VoteCast survey asked likely voters if they would support U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, author Marianne Williamson or someone else. Of those who said they support someone else, nearly all indicated they would write in Biden.

As of 8:09 p.m., Phillips and Williamson were at 21% and 5% of the tabulated vote, respectively, and AP’s analysis shows that there are no scenarios for either to end up the winner.