NASHUA, New Hampshire — Iowa’s Democratic caucuses have left Elizabeth Warren teetering on the edge of survival in her quest to secure the Democratic presidential nomination.
As results trickle in from Iowa, attention is overwhelmingly focused on both South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders trying to claim victory. Former Vice President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has tried to downplay a fourth-place finish.
The Massachusetts senator, 70, tried to strike an optimistic tone before final results were released.
“Here’s what we know: It’s a tight, three-way race at the top,” Warren said at her first town hall in New Hampshire on Tuesday. “We know that the three of us will be dividing up most of the delegates coming out of Iowa.”
But the release of partial Iowa results on Tuesday had Warren in a distant third place behind Buttigieg and Sanders in state delegate equivalents, neither surging above or falling significantly behind where the RealClearPolitics polling average found her, at 18.6%, in the days before the caucuses.
Warren’s campaign on Tuesday evening canceled more than $350,000 in ad spending that was scheduled in the next two primary contest states of Nevada and South Carolina.
She denied that the change in ad money reflected a change in her strategy to go all-in on New Hampshire. “It’s about the fact that we completely finance our campaign through grassroots, and I just always want to be careful about how we spend money,” she said.
Warren avoided answering whether she needs a first-place finish in New Hampshire to have a viable campaign. “This isn’t about the numbers as much as it is about the people, the enthusiasm,” Warren said.
After New Hampshire, she said, “We’ve got 55 more states and territories. We already have on-the-ground operations in 31 states and 1,000 people.”
In recent weeks, Warren has adjusted her pitch to voters, which long had a focus on her left-wing policy proposals and “big, structural change,” by arguing that she is best-positioned to unite the party and the country, even going as far to suggest that Republican voters could support her in a general election.
Voters who saw Warren in Nashua on Wednesday, however, were skeptical that she could appeal across the aisle.
“I’m betting that she can’t, because I don’t think it’s Republicans could come back from where they are,” said Steve Williams, a retired Nashua resident who strongly supports the Massachusetts senator.
“That will be tough,” said Carol Gayman, a Manchester resident and an undecided voter who is a fundraiser for the local YMCA. “And I don’t rely on females to say, ‘Well, I’m going to vote for her because she’s female.’ I don’t trust them, anymore.”
