President Biden wins the Democratic primaries in New Hampshire

President Biden won the Democratic presidential elections in New Hampshire on Tuesday, supported by the letter-writing campaign of his supporters after him refused to appear on the state ballot.

The victory, declared by The Associated Press, was, if expected, good news for Mr. Biden. But votes were still being counted and the final margin of his victory will be closely watched.

As an incumbent president facing a list of long-term challengers, anything less than a decisive victory would be seen as a blow to Biden, even if he tried not to get involved in the primaries.

Mr. Biden skipped the state after a dispute over the timing of the primaries, as he and the Democratic National Committee sought to boost New Hampshire's election later in the nominating process. Granite Staters, deeply protective of their “first-in-the-nation” tradition, refused to comply.

His allies in the state eventually intervened, and the writing effort, backed by top Democrats there, generated the kind of grassroots energy for Mr. Biden that has not yet materialized in other states — and that he has not enjoyed in the past. The 2020 New Hampshire primary, when he finished fifth.

“Despite President Biden's absence from the vote, Granite Staters still showed up in large numbers to show their support for the great work the Biden-Harris administration has done,” said New Hampshire Chairman Ray Buckley Democratic Party – and a ardent critic of the calendar changes – said in a statement praising the success of the registration campaign. “Once again, New Hampshire's first primary has made history – and we are as proud as ever.”

Before Tuesday's vote, a memo from the Write-In Biden campaign emphasized the complex nature of the race and warned against drawing sweeping conclusions from the results.

“Write-in campaigns are very difficult, and Joe Biden's vote count on January 23 will underestimate his actual support among Democrats and independents in New Hampshire,” the memo warned.

There are also signs that Democratic-leaning independents, who would most likely support Biden in the general election, entered the state's Republican primaries to oppose former President Donald J. Trump.

Trump won his race anyway, defeating Nikki Haley on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, vowed to continue her campaign.

The Biden campaign did not comment directly on the outcome of the Democratic primary in New Hampshire. Instead, a statement from Julie Chávez Rodríguez, his campaign manager, indicated the team was in general election mode.

“Tonight's results confirm that Donald Trump has all but blocked the Republican Party nomination, and that the election-denying, anti-freedom MAGA movement has completed its takeover of the Republican Party,” she said. “Donald Trump is heading straight into an election contest, where he will face the only person who has ever defeated him at the ballot box: Joe Biden.”

Still, Biden's absence in New Hampshire left him exposed to a collection of opponents who had virtually no chance of winning the nomination but saw an opportunity to grab attention.

That group was led by Representative Dean Phillips, Democrat of Minnesota. Mr. Phillips, who advanced a message of generational change and castigated the 81-year-old Mr. Biden as “ineligible,” spent heavily on advertising, while highlighting criticism of Biden's record. One of his Advertisements showed Bigfoot looking for the president.

He tried to tap into Democratic discontent with the president, and there is plenty of it obvious at polls. Mr. Biden's allies argue that as Americans focus more on the election, especially the prospect of another showdown against Mr. Trump, that sentiment will change.

On Tuesday evening, Mr. Phillips congratulated Mr. Biden at his watch party in Manchester, saying the president “absolutely won tonight” — but, he added, “certainly not in a way that a strong incumbent president should.”

The tougher tests for Biden will come when he enters the Democratic primaries next month in South Carolina, Nevada and Michigan, three key states where the Biden campaign will have to show it can mobilize its most loyal voters. Amid concerns from Democrats about the structure of his campaign — and as his team gears up for a nail-biting general election quickly approaching — Biden approved a leadership change that will see a top White House aide take functional control of the re- election efforts, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

The drama surrounding this year's nomination calendar began in late 2022, when Mr. Biden and the Democratic National Committee decided to reshuffle the agenda and say Democrats should give states with more racial diversity greater influence. Their plan put South Carolina first and would have pushed New Hampshire into second place next to Nevada.

But New Hampshire Democrats, who are proud of the state's age-old “first in the nation” tradition — a matter of constitutional law – refused, and the state was stripped of its deputies.

Ultimately, the state's leading Democrats put aside their vociferous criticism of the calendar revision to support the head of their party, even as they staunchly defended their primary tradition.

“It's in our DNA — it's part of who we are,” said former New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch, Democrat. “But I also think there are Democrats, myself included, who are willing to step back and say, what's the bigger picture?”

Anjali Huynh contributed reporting from Manchester, NH