The 2004 New Hampshire

New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

 Democratic Primary was held on January 27, 2004 across the state. Taking place 8 days after the Iowa Caucuses, it marked the second contest to take place during the Democratic party's 2004 primary season, as well as the first actual primary to take place.

Primary Polling

Primary polling taken by American Research Group

American Research Group

American Research Group, Incorporated is a U.S. opinion polling and marketing research company based in Manchester, New Hampshire.-External links:*...

 during the last few days of campaigning ( January 23 to January 27, 2004 ) showed that former New Hampshire poll leader as well as national leader Howard Dean was steadily gaining ground to catch up to now front runner John Kerry.

Candidate	January 23 to 25 poll tracking	January 24 to 26 poll tracking
John Kerry	38%	35%
Howard Dean	20%	25%
John Edwards	16%	15%
Wesley Clark	15%	13%
Joe Lieberman	5%	6%

Gathered from ARG's 2004 NH Democratic Tracking Poll

Margin of Error +/- 4

Tracking polling showed that Dean had been catching up to Kerry in the days before the primary, cutting Kerry's 18 point lead to 10 points in a matter of days. With Dean dropping and Kerry rising, it became apparent that the battle for 1st place in New Hampshire would be close. Also, for third place, Wesley Clark, John Edwards and Joe Lieberman were the only ones fighting for third. With Clark and Edwards both taking hits going into the primary, a Lieberman on the rise, the fight for 1st place and third place, according to polls would be intense.

Exit Polling

Category	All	Clark	Dean	Edwards	Kerry	Lieberman
Male	46%	13%	25%	14%	36%	10%
Female	54%	12%	26%	11%	41%	8%
18-64 Years	89%	12%	25%	13%	39%	8%
65+ Years	11%	10%	28%	10%	38%	13%
Democrat	48%	11%	29%	12%	41%	5%
Republican	4%	10%	8%	9%	29%	26%
Independent	48%	13%	23%	13%	37%	12%

Source: CNN.com 2004 Primaries

Kerry won huge margins of support amongst almost all constituencies, with his only weak point amongst Republicans who made up 4% of the voting block and was Lieberman's strongest point. Dean repeatedly came distant seconds or third for almost all categories of voters. Edward defeated Clark amongst Male voters as well as voters under 65 but only by a very tiny margin. Lieberman finished in a distant third in almost all categories except for Republicans in which he nearly defeated John Kerry.

Results

As results began to come in during Primary night, it became apparent Kerry had won the primary and was promptly projected the winner by several media outlets. Dean finished in second place. Clark and Edwards were in a dead-lock for third place, with both candidates at 12% during the night.

As final results were being tallied, Kerry won the primary with 84,277 votes and 38%, Dean finished second with 57,761, and 26% and Clark narrowly defeated Edwards for third place with 27,314 votes and 12%

Candidate	No. State Delegates	Percentage	Potential National delegates
John Kerry John Kerry John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...	84,377	38.35	12
Howard Dean Howard Dean Howard Brush Dean III is an American politician and physician from Vermont. He served six terms as the 79th Governor of Vermont and ran unsuccessfully for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. He was chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2005 to 2009. Although his U.S...	57,761	26.25	9
Wesley Clark Wesley Clark Wesley Kanne Clark, Sr., is a retired general of the United States Army. Graduating as valedictorian of the class of 1966 at West Point, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford where he obtained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and later graduated from the...	27,314	12.41	0
John Edwards John Edwards Johnny Reid "John" Edwards is an American politician, who served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004, and was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008.He defeated incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth in...	26,487	12.04	0
Joe Liberman	18,911	8.59	0
Dennis Kucinich Dennis Kucinich Dennis John Kucinich is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1997. He was furthermore a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections....	3,114	01.42	0