NEW YORK: Donald Trump, the combative and rabble billionaire, won New Hampshire’s Republican presidential nominating contest on Tuesday while Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described “democratic socialist”, took the Democratic primary over Hillary Clinton.

This is only the first test for candidates. Mrs Clinton, who wants to be the first woman president of the United States, is expected to do well in South Carolina, the next place of primary election.

With 15 per cent of precincts reporting in Tuesday’s race, Trump was easily winning, taking about 34 per cent of the vote — compared to about 16 per cent for second placed John Kasich. Trump’s win solidifies his frontrunner status in the race to be the party’s White House nominee for the November elections.

Donald Trump’s campaign has been marked by calls for the deportation of undocumented migrants and temporarily banning Muslims from entering the United States. He has been blasted for his anti-Muslim comments, but has doubled down on his assertion.

Bernie Sanders is the underdog in the national race against former secretary of state Clinton. He is promising universal healthcare, better paying jobs, and student debt relief.

He had about 57 per cent of the vote in early returns, ahead of Clinton, who had about 41per cent. “What the people here have said is that given the enormous crises facing our country, it is just too late for the same old, same old establishment politics and establishment economics,” Sanders told supporters at his headquarters in Concord.

“Together we have sent the message that will echo from Wall Street to Washington, from Maine to California, and that is that the government of our great country belongs to all of the people and not just a handful of wealthy campaign contributors,” Sanders said in a statement.

Trump blasts Sanders: In his victory speech, Trump, 69, said Sanders “wants to give away our country.” He pledged to have business experts negotiate better trade deals and to “knock the hell out” of the militant Islamic State group.

Clinton’s campaign acknowledged it had lost in New Hampshire. Campaign manager Robby Mook said in a memo they had “split” the first two nominating contests — Clinton won Iowa last week — and said the Democratic nomination would “very likely” be decided next month.

The Clinton campaign said the support of black and Hispanic voters would be key to victory. The next primary races are in Nevada and South Carolina later this month.

The success of the two candidates showed that people were “fed up with the political establishment”, according to an analyst.

Lara Brown, of the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University, told Al Jazeera that the New Hampshire results showed a lot of people were looking at American politics “and they do believe the system is rigged”.

“They do have a sense when Donald Trump says ‘We’re just not winning any more’, or when Bernie Sanders talks about those people on Wall Street really controlling Washington; I think both of those messages are resonating,” Brown said.

Trump boasts he will make America great again without saying how he will reach that goal.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2016