America's primaries: Biden's odd victory

In addition to Republicans, Democrats also voted for their future presidential candidate in New Hampshire. With a strange result: President Biden won the primary, even though he was not on the ballot.

According to predictions, US President Joe Biden has won the primary election for his party's presidential nomination in New Hampshire. However, his victory was symbolic in nature — because the state's delegate votes won't be counted at the Democratic nominating convention in the summer.

Biden, who is seeking a second term as president in November, did not even vote in the primary. However, voters got a chance to write in his name. Biden's supporters campaigned for votes primarily for image reasons, so as not to see the president as hollow.

Democrats moved the primary to South Carolina

The background was an internal dispute among Democrats: the party leadership wanted to shift the opening of the primary series to South Carolina – a state with a very diverse electorate – in order to give a bigger stage to the vote of black voters. Voting will not be held there till February 3.

New Hampshire did not want to lose its status as the first primary election state and insisted on its early voting date. Biden stuck to party lines and did not appear on the ballot in New Hampshire. Only the less likely candidates were shortlisted there. As an incumbent, Biden has no serious competition in the Democratic primaries.