David Jackson

USA TODAY

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Billionaire businessman Donald Trump rode his anti-establishment message to an easy win in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, with Ohio Gov. John Kasich running a distant second and other GOP rivals far behind.

"We learned a lot about ground games in one week!" Trump told cheering supporters in Manchester just eight days after finishing second in the Iowa caucuses.

Having ascended the stage to the sounds of The Beatles song Revolution, Trump predicted victory down the line, blasted current lawmakers for making bad decisions, and told New Hampshire voters: "Remember, you started it!"

Kasich hailed his second-place finish as a tribute to his positive message, telling supporters "the light overcame the darkness" of negative campaigning.

After Kasich, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio battled it out for third place in New Hampshire, with Rubio possibly looking at a disappointing fifth place finish. All vowed to campaign aggressively in South Carolina, site of the next Republican primary on Feb. 20.

Cruz, who edged the New York billionaire last week in the Iowa caucuses, congratulated Trump, but told supporters "the real winner is the conservative grassroots."

Further back in the New Hampshire pack: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, businesswoman Carly Fiorina, and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.

Christie, whose criticism of Rubio in a debate Saturday proved to be a pivotal event, told supporters he would skip a planned trip to South Carolina and return to New Jersey to "take a deep breath" before deciding on the future of his campaign.

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Early returns indicated that Trump might get double the vote of his nearest competitor, Kasich.

While Trump entered primary day as the betting favorite, the other candidates jostled for position as part of an overall battle to become the main alternative to the New York billionaire in upcoming Republican contests. Many of the New Hampshire candidates planned to leave immediately for South Carolina.

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Rubio, who finished a strong third last week in Iowa but had a poorly reviewed debate performance on Saturday, blamed himself for his disappointing finish. "I did not do well on Saturday night," he told supporters, "so let me tell you this: That will never happen again."

Kasich, who like Christie and Bush has argued that gubernatorial experience is better preparation for the presidency, told supporters he always had an "insurance policy" in New Hampshire: "It’s you. It’s all of you."

He added: “There’s something that’s going on, that I’m not sure that anyone can quite understand. There’s magic in the air with this campaign ... We see it as an opportunity for all of us, and I mean all of us, to be involved with something that is bigger than our lives.”

Bush told supporters that "This campaign's not dead — we're going on to South Carolina."

The New Hampshire primary was the first contest since Cruz won Iowa last Monday. While New Hampshire has fewer evangelical voters than Iowa, the Texas senator said he was pleased with his showing in the Granite State.

Kasich, Bush and Christie, meanwhile, spent the bulk of their campaign time in New Hampshire and saw it as a make-or-break state for their White House hopes.

Like other candidates, they hit polling places, television studios, call-in radio shows, the Internet, and social media in their last-minute appeals for votes.

Bush, the son and brother of previous presidents who touted his executive experience in Florida, appealed to voters via social media.

He tweeted: "Closing my time in New Hampshire the same way I began: giving it my all, speaking to every voter and being true to what I believe."

Christie, who earned positive reviews for a debate performance Saturday in which he hit Rubio for his habit of repeating the same sound bites over and over, emailed supporters a video of his remarks at a recent town hall in New Hampshire.

"I want to do as well as I possibly can," the New Jersey governor said.

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Like Trump, Fiorina and Carson both campaigned in the Granite State largely against the current political establishment.

"Maybe we will wake up and recognize that it was politicians who created our problems," Carson told Fox News.

Fiorina, who had protested her exclusion from Saturday's debate because of low poll numbers, told supporters in New Hampshire that she intends to "keep going," despite the prospect of a low finish.

As is tradition, voting in New Hampshire began shortly after midnight in the tiny hamlets of Dixville Notch, Millsfield and Hart's Location: Trump, Cruz and Kasich all tied with nine votes.

Robert McKim, 92, said he decided very early on that he was going to support Trump.

"He is paving his own way ... he has a controversial nature, but he'll learn to overcome it. He's smart," McKim said outside of a polling location in Manchester. "We need someone who will speak their mind"

Contributing: Trisha Thadani