(Image source from: American presidential elections – Surprise win for Trump and Sanders })

Donald J Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont harnessed working-class fury to surge to commanding victories in a New Hampshire primary. The success by two outsider candidates dealt a remarkable rebuke to the political establishment. Trump, the wealthy businessman whose blunt language and outsider image have electrified many Republicans and horrified others. The win for Sanders amounted to a powerful and painful rejection of Hillary Clinton, who has a deep history with New Hampshire voters.

NBC News exit polls showed Clinton, a former secretary of state, US senator and first lady, won 44% of the women's vote in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary to 55% for her Democratic Party rival, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. Young women contributed significantly to Clinton's loss and the candidate acknowledged that she struggled with young voters. "I know I have some work to do, particularly with young people," Clinton said during a concession speech. "Even if they are not supporting me now, I support them."

Trump led in New Hampshire polls since July and Sanders was ahead for the last month, the wave of support for both men was nonetheless stunning to leaders of both parties who believed that in the end, voters would embrace more experienced candidates.

Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said, "there is a special place in hell for women who don't help each other" while introducing Clinton at a rally on Saturday. Clinton told a young woman the same day that she has to walk a "narrower path" because she has "got to be aware of the fact that I'm trying to be the first woman president of the United States of America, and there has never been one before, and so people don't have, you know, an image."

Paige Lambert, 23, who volunteered for the Sanders campaign in New Hampshire, said that she thought the remarks by Steinem and Albright were sexist. "I don't think I should have to vote for a woman because I am a woman," Lambert said. "If I would have thought she'd do better, I would have voted for her. I'm not just going to vote for her because she's a woman." Amanda Coleman, 26, of Manchester, New Hampshire, said.

Katherine Wilbur, 20, a geography major at the University of South Carolina from Hopkins, South Carolina, said that she had yet to decide on a candidate or party. "I think that's ridiculous. It's 2016," Wilbur said of the suggestion that women should vote for other women. "It's not important to me."

By Premji