Joe Biden is seeking to gather momentum for his candidacy in New Hampshire following the Iowa Caucus, in which he stands at fourth place with 15.4 percent of votes with 71 percent of the results reported.
“I need your help. I am asking for your help. Look me over,” Biden told a rally in Nashua, N.H. on Tuesday. “Like my mother said, hope springs eternal. We are not giving up; we are not giving up.”
The former vice president said in an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader that he didn’t need to win the nation’s first primary per se, but that he did have to remain viable in the early primaries.
“No I don’t think I have to win here [in New Hampshire]; I have to do well here,” Biden said. “I think I have to be competitive in all of them, and if we do I think we’ll be good.” Biden is the national front-runner in Democratic primary polls, however he faces stiff competition from Senators Bernie Sanders (D., Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) for the progressive wing of the party, as well as from South Bend, Ind. mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Buttigieg remained in the lead as the results from Iowa were updated overnight, garnering 26.8 percent of the vote, almost double that of Biden. Buttigieg was also in Nashua for his own rally on Tuesday, where he obtained the endorsement of Nashua Mayor James Donchess.
The New Hampshire Primary will occur on Tuesday, February 11, leaving candidates about a week to canvass the state in preparation.