Bush: I'm 'not dead' The former front-runner finished fourth, with his lone consolation being to place ahead of Marco Rubio.

MANCHESTER, N.H.—Unlike his more polished and scripted rivals, Jeb Bush was his typically blunt, honest self when he took the stage here with the polls showing him in fourth place in New Hampshire and crystallized his own predicament.

“This campaign is not dead,” Bush said. “We’re going on to South Carolina.”


For the moment, it didn’t matter that Bush spent $36 million in New Hampshire, built the best organization in the state and only managed to finish fourth, with less than a third of the total votes that went to Donald Trump, who he’s spent the last several months attacking.

All that matters is that Bush, considered the establishment frontrunner at the outset of this race a year ago, is still alive and kicking—as much due to the precipitous collapse of support for Marco Rubio, his main rival for establishment support, as his own organization and performance. Rubio, who finished a strong third in Iowa and entered New Hampshire eight days ago with momentum, cratered after a disastrous debate performance and looks to finish fifth--a few hundred votes behind Bush.

“The pundits had it all figured out. They declared that this was a three man race between a reality TV star and two freshman senators,” Bush said upon taking the stage at Manchester Community College before 400 supporters.

“And, yeah, the reality TV star is still doing pretty well. But you all have reset the race.”

Trump is headed for the biggest New Hampshire primary victory margin since 1980, when Ronald Reagan won by 26 points over George H.W. Bush.

Inside the small gymnasium where Bush spoke, he brought cheers from his supporters and chants of “Jeb! Jeb! Jeb!”

But outside, the country wasn’t watching. Trump was giving his victory speech at the same time, and the news network feeds followed him, leaving Bush far from the spotlight.

