Bernie Sanders today clinched a hard-fought victory in the New Hampshire Democratic primary as the former frontrunner Joe Biden was condemned to fifth place.
Thanking his supporters at a rally, Mr Sanders claimed the result was “the beginning of the end for Donald Trump”.
The 78-year-old Left-wing firebrand fended off a late challenge by two moderate candidates to claim pole position in the race to take on Mr Trump in November’s presidential election.
Mr Sanders’s win — after a strong showing in last week’s initial nomination vote in Iowa — was in sharp contrast to Mr Biden’s dismal result. He is slumping in the race despite leading national polls for months.
Former Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg, 38, claimed second place, with Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar, 59, surging into contention in third. Elizabeth Warren, 70, previously tipped as a possible winner, fell back to fourth.
With 97 per cent of results in, Mr Sanders won 25.9 per cent of the 28,000 votes, beating Mr Buttigieg by 4,200 votes.
With the party’s centrist vote split in a muddled field, analysts suggested Mr Sanders was gaining momentum in the race four years after being beaten by Hillary Clinton.
Vowing to win the next ballots in Nevada and South Carolina, he said he was building an “unprecedented multi-generational, multi-racial political movement”.
Former vice president Mr Biden, 77, is hoping to salvage his campaign in South Carolina. The gaffe-prone candidate appeared shell-shocked as he mixed up his states in a speech, saying: “It’s important that Iowa and Nevada have spoken.”
As the early count confirmed the poor performance, he cancelled a party, telling supporters: “We just heard from the first two of the 50 states. Two of them. Not all of the nation, not half the nation.”
Mr Buttigieg benefited from his strong result in Iowa and cast himself as the moderate alternative to Mr Sanders’ “revolution”. More surprising was Ms Klobuchar’s emergence after a lacklustre performance in Iowa.
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The race’s big unknown factor is the impact of ex-New York mayor Michael Bloomberg when he joins the contest on March 3 for Super Tuesday.
The billionaire media mogul, whose entry into the field came too late to compete in the early-voting states, has spent more than $300 million (£230 million) on advertising in the 14 states that will be voting on that one day.
Two Democrat long shots — entrepreneur Andrew Yang and senator Michael Bennet — announced they were dropping out, reducing the field to nine.
