President Biden emerged victorious in the New Hampshire presidential primary Tuesday despite not appearing on the ballot.
Mr. Biden bested longshot challengers and overcame an ongoing beef with the Democratic National Committee over the party’s push to switch up the nomination calendar.
Biden Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez turned attention to a rematch in November against former President Donald Trump, saying the New Hampshire results show that Mr. Trump “has all but locked up” the Republican nomination.
“The election denying, anti-freedom MAGA movement has completed its takeover of the Republican Party,” she said in a statement. “Trump is offering Americans the same extreme agenda that has cost Republicans election after election: promising to undermine American democracy, reward the wealthy on the backs of the middle class, and ban abortion nationwide.”
She said Mr. Biden is “fighting to grow our economy for the middle-class, strengthen our democracy, and protect the rights of every single American.”
“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 said.
The Democratic primary dispute created a messy situation where Mr. Biden was not on the New Hampshire ballot and activists raced to spearhead a write-in campaign to make sure he did not suffer an embarrassing defeat. Mr. Biden also faced a challenge from another elected Democrat, a rarity for an incumbent president.
Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota and Marianne Williamson, a self-help guru and two-time candidate, had hoped to shock the world. They did not.
With 27% of the vote counted, Mr. Biden had received close to 20,000 write-in votes. Mr. Phillips was closing in on 6,000 votes, and Ms. Williamson had received over 1,000 votes.
Vermin Supreme, a satiric staple of New Hampshire primaries, had 46 votes.