What Happens If Amy Klobuchar Wins The New Hampshire Primary?

Early this morning as we settled into the long-awaited New Hampshire primary day — especially after the rough-and-tumble bruising from Iowa — reports started stirring about Amy Klobuchar’s surprising early lead. Since the midnight hour, the numbers coming out of New Hampshire and the name Klobuchar seems to remain steadily on top.

Klobuchar is currently leading with approximately 29.6% of the vote, ahead of even Bernie Sanders, although these are still incomplete numbers. Still, it looks like she may just be surging ahead, riding the wave of her debate performance in New Hampshire on Friday night to say: "If you're tired of the political noise, you have a home with me."

While the polls aren’t anywhere close to being complete, it’s still a big deal for a candidate who has been falling behind to suddenly surge ahead — particularly given recent news around Klobuchar's prosecutorial record. For the Minnesota Senator, who has been trailing way behind for most of this election, leading in an early voting state like New Hampshire is promising for her campaign. It’s just the push she needs since her last big win, the New York Times endorsement. Klobuchar has recently fallen well behind lead candidates like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Pete Buttigieg, especially in Iowa. So what happens if Klobuchar wins the New Hampshire primary after all is said, done, and counted? 

While the New Hampshire primary is telling of who could become a frontrunner among the Democratic candidates running for office, it's not the be-all-end-all of the election cycle. Klobuchar would still have to win other big states, like Colorado, which she hasn’t spent much time paying attention to at all. Winning a state like New Hampshire could give her campaign the push that’s needed to up the ante — if Klobuchar sees she has momentum, other states may take more notice of the candidate.

Currently, there’s much data that will still be trickling in well into late hours tonight and nothing can be called yet. Buttigieg and Sanders are still the projected frontrunners for the primary elections across the nation. We’re expected to know more about final New Hampshire results after polling places begin closing at 7-8 PM Eastern Standard Time. Polling times there are determined on a city-by-city basis. Then, we’ll just have to see how the scales balance out and if Klobuchar has a shot at winning the Granite State.