CONCORD, N.H. — There’s no way around it.

New Hampshire gave Hillary Clinton a thumping to remember Tuesday night, a 20-point thrashing that sent tremors through the Democratic establishment and all-but-guaranteed the Democratic race will last through the end of March — perhaps even longer.


Picking through the election results, there was little for the Clinton campaign to seize on. Her losing margin was too great to claim any kind of moral victory. Bernie Sanders’ winning margin was so wide that it can’t be brushed off as home-field advantage. The exit polls were a bloodbath: She lost women 55 percent to 44 percent, got killed by independents 72-25, and fell short with every age group except those 65 and older. Sanders defeated her in every discrete region of the state, even in towns where she outran Barack Obama in 2008.

“People want inspiration,” said Marist pollster Lee Miringoff in the aftermath of the stunning New Hampshire loss, “and they’re not getting that from Hillary Clinton.”

If Iowa answered many questions about the strength of her field organization, New Hampshire raised just as many about the weakness of her message. Perhaps not enough to send her supporters to the exits, or to hear faint echoes of the Joe Biden drumbeat, but if she doesn’t pull it together in time for Nevada on Feb. 20 and South Carolina on Feb. 27, it’s going to be flop sweat time for the Democratic establishment.

"People need to start understanding something," said chief Sanders strategist Tad Devine after the result was called as polls closed on Tuesday. "We are a better campaign. We are a better organized campaign. We have more people on the ground. And as of today I believe we have more resources, campaign to campaign, to expend. We are demonstrating that resource superiority by going on television all across this country, and it is our ability to organize people — which I think we showed in Iowa, and showed again tonight in New Hampshire — [that's allowing us to deploy] hundreds of people on the ground in the states that come forward."

Once the results were in on Tuesday night, Clinton's camp even seemed to acknowledge a point that Nevada Democrats have been making for weeks: Nevada — long thought of as safe Clinton territory — might be far closer than expected. Clinton campaign staffers began discussing the state, once expected to serve as Clinton's firewall should she fall apart in New Hampshire or Iowa, as a place where white voters could close the gap for Sanders.

“There’s an important Hispanic element to the Democratic caucus in Nevada,” Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said in an interview with NBC's Chuck Todd. “But it’s still a state that is 80 percent white voters. You have a caucus-style format, and he’ll have the momentum coming out of New Hampshire presumably, so there’s a lot of reasons he should do well.”

The problem? It ran counter to the message the campaign’s been pushing for weeks – that Sanders would get his comeuppance in more diverse states like Nevada.

Even Democratic party chair Roberta Lange wasn't buying that characterization on Tuesday night: “With our vibrant Latino, African American and Asian American/Pacific Islander communities and the strong presence of organized labor here, no other early state comes close to matching our demographic, regional and cultural diversity,” she said in a statement.

Jon Ralston, the dean of the Nevada press corps, added on Twitter, "For Team Clinton to make it seem now as if NV is a non-diverse state with one of those unpredictable caucuses is pathetic."

Celebrating Sanders staffers spent the hours after his victory on Tuesday night promising that he would fight on, and that the smackdown in New Hampshire — a state that rescued the political careers of both Bill and Hillary Clinton in the past — was an indication of trouble in Clinton's campaign.

Adding to their sense of confidence: The Sanders campaign said it raised $2.6 million after the polls closed in New Hampshire. And ActBlue, the Democratic online fundraising platform, was so busy Tuesday night after Sanders asked supporters to donate that the site experienced delays due to the high traffic.



Yet Clinton’s team and supporters were dejected but not disconsolate as the results rolled in, continuing to express confidence that when the dust is settled and the February hysteria dissipates, Clinton will hit the only number that really matters: 2,382, the number of delegates necessary to claim the Democratic nomination.

"I've never been more happy that we won Iowa than I am right now,” said one Clinton ally. “Can you imagine what tonight would have been if we hadn't?"

Clinton appeared upbeat in delivering her concession speech, staying after to shake hands with supporters and pose for selfies — which she did not do after taking the stage in Iowa before the caucus results were in. Communications director Jennifer Palmieri told CNN that Clinton was “in good spirits. She doesn’t like to lose, but she expected it.”

Still, close allies of the Clintons said she never expected to lose by so much.

Now that the overwhelmingly white states of Iowa and New Hampshire have voted and the focus turns to more diverse Nevada and South Carolina, the Clinton campaign envisions a very different campaign, one where Clinton occupies the commanding heights, and where the light is shined on Sanders’ weaknesses.

Allies said they expect the support of unions, elected officials and her close to 100 percent name recognition to help her in states where Sanders has less time to introduce himself to voters. But the main focus is expected to be on the racial dimension of the contest.

“It will be very difficult, if not impossible, for a Democrat to win the nomination without strong levels of support among African American and Hispanic voters. We believe that’s how it should be. And a Democrat who is unable to inspire strong levels of support in minority communities will have no credible path to winning the presidency in the general election,” wrote Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook Tuesday night, in a memo released before the race was called. “Hillary’s high levels of support in the African American and Hispanic communities are well known. She has maintained a wide double digit lead over Sen. Sanders among minority voters in national surveys and in states where African American and Hispanic voters make up a large share of the electorate.”

Sanders staffers plan to have the campaign focus more on Sanders' biography, a story that they believe will resonate with the minority voters who aren't so familiar with him. Still, Sanders’ path to the nomination is an exercise in needle-threading. He’s achieved the essential first step – cash-flush and armed with a big early-state win, the Vermont senator has established himself as a bona fide threat, a credible challenger with a hardened base of support.

Now comes the hard part, beginning March 1, when much of the South will vote — and Clinton is positioned to romp in the 11 primaries that will take place that day. Sanders will concentrate on the two states within reach — Colorado and Minnesota, both caucus states that are built for insurgent candidates like himself — as well as Massachusetts, where he thinks he can make headway, Oklahoma, and Virginia.

His fate in those states will provide insight into the viability of his strategy – a sweep of 11 largely white caucus states that would enable him to amass enough delegates to remain in the hunt through the end of March. After that, he’d be relying on momentum — and an emerging narrative about a brittle, stumbling front-runner who is unloved by the party base.

It’s a bank-shot, unless Sanders is also able to remain at least competitive in the bigger, delegate-rich March states like Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Texas — all states where Clinton has a head start.

One thing seems certain if Clinton isn’t able to finish off Sanders: the cavalry isn’t coming for establishment Democrats. There are no other candidates waiting in the wings, short of a dramatic entrance from Biden or Elizabeth Warren.

And Clinton allies privately expressed a similarly clear message on Tuesday night: how glad they are that those two aren't running.