Trump, Sanders win big in New Hampshire primary

Billionaire businessman Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Socialist Bernie Sanders won the hotly-contested New Hampshire primaries on Tuesday, U.S. networks projected, marking a dramatic win for outsider candidates opposed to the Washington establishment.

The contest in the small northeastern state is the second key test on the long road to the White House. Trump’s win will help boost his campaign after an embarrassing loss to Senator Ted Cruz in the Iowa caucuses last week.

Trump basked in his victory in Tuesday’s Republican presidential primary and said that America under his leadership will “start winning again.”

Trump told supporters that he’ll be the “greatest jobs president God ever created.”

He promised that if he is to become U.S. commander in chief, he’ll “knock the hell” out of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and negotiate what he says would be better trade deals.

A Trump presidency, he said, would mean “nobody is going to mess with us.”

Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders won a commanding victory over Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire primary.

Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, beat a former secretary of state and first lady once seen as the all-but-certain Democratic nominee. While Clinton remains the favorite in the national race for the Democratic nomination, the win by the Vermont senator could be a springboard into a competitive, drawn-out primary campaign.

At stake Tuesday were less than one percent of the delegates who, at party national conventions in July, will choose nominees to succeed President Barack Obama. But a strong showing in New Hampshire can give a candidate momentum ahead of state contests in coming weeks, including the March 1 “Super Tuesday, when 11 states vote.

Nearly half of voters in the Republican primary made up their mind in the past week, according to early exit polls conducted by Edison Research for the Associated Press and the television networks.