Monadnock region voters came out in a big way on Tuesday – surpassing local totals from 2008’s presidential race – voting in line with a national trend that saw Donald Trump edging out or lessening margins in swing states.
As a swing state, New Hampshire is a battleground that must be won on the way to the presidency. While New Hampshire remained a blue state this year for the presidential race, the margin of victory for Hillary Clinton was much smaller than President Barack Obama’s path to the Oval Office in 2008.
Overall, Clinton defeated Trump in New Hampshire by a margin of less than 1,500 votes, compared to Obama’s nearly 70,000 vote lead over John McCain in 2008.
The Monadnock region specifically saw a large change in the dynamics of how people vote, with many previously blue towns from 2008 turning red in 2016, such as Antrim, Bennington, Greenville, Lyndeborough, and Wilton.
Towns like Dublin, Jaffrey, and Peterborough, which were dominantly blue towns in 2008, tinged closer to purple this election cycle. Previously red towns like Rindge, Mason, and New Ipswich became more red this year.
In the 16 towns covered by the Ledger-Transcript, Trump won by a vote of 12,177 to Clinton’s 11,789, compared to 2008, when Obama defeated McCain 13,706 votes to 11,492.
The independent vote also was a factor in this year’s election, with Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson eclipsing all third party totals from 2008.
Throughout the Monadnock region, Johnson commanded 2.9 to 7.6-percent of the vote – 4.2-percent statewide – in a third-party field that also saw votes for Jill Stein and Rocky De La Fuente.
In the 2008 election, all Independent candidates combined did not poll higher than 1.7 percent in any town, with some area towns having zero votes for third party options.
Nicholas Handy can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 235 or nhandy@ledgertranscript.com. He is also on Twitter @nhandyMLT.