Warren concedes New Hampshire, vows to continue campaign

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) conceded defeat in New Hampshire’s presidential primary but vowed to continue campaigning across the country as the race heads to more diverse states.

The concession from Warren comes as early results show Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) holding the top three spots in the Granite State, trailed by Warren in a distant fourth. The race is still too close to call.

“Results are still coming in from across the state, but right now it is clear that Senator Sanders and Mayor Buttigieg had strong nights,” Warren said in prepared remarks circulated by her campaign. “And I also want to congratulate my friend and colleague Amy Klobuchar for showing just how wrong the pundits can be when they count a woman out.

“We might be headed for another one of those long primary fights that lasts for months. We’re two states in, with 55 states and territories to go,” she added. “We still have 98% of the delegates for our nomination up for grabs, and Americans in every part of our country are going to make their voices heard.”

The apparent fourth-place finish for Warren comes after a third-place showing in last week’s Iowa caucuses. The Massachusetts senator was viewed as having an advantage in New Hampshire coming from a neighbor state and had led in several polls in Iowa in the fall.

Her campaign outlined her path forward in a memo released to supporters earlier Tuesday, casting the crowded primary field as wide open.

“No candidate has come close yet to receiving majority support among the Democratic primary electorate, and there is no candidate that has yet shown the ability to consolidate support,” wrote Roger Lau, Warren’s campaign manager. “As we’ve seen in the last week, debates and unexpected results have an outsize impact on the race, and will likely keep it volatile and unpredictable through Super Tuesday.”

Warren has cast herself as a unity candidate who can bridge the centrist-progressive divide that has plagued the Democratic Party since 2016. 

She urged in her New Hampshire concession speech to avoid rehashing “the same old divides in our party” and avoid the increasingly personal broadsides that have marked the campaign trail in recent weeks.

“These harsh tactics might work if you’re willing to burn down the rest of the party in order to be the last man standing,” said Warren. 

“But if we’re going to beat Donald Trump in November, we are going to need huge turnout within our party, and to get that turnout, we will need a nominee that the broadest coalition of our party feels they can get behind,” she added. “We can’t afford to fall into factions. We can’t afford to squander our collective power. We will win when we come together.”