Klobuchar Gets the Bronze
Amy Klobuchar turned heads Tuesday with her strong third-place showing in New Hampshire, but it wasn’t the best performance by a Minnesotan in a Granite State presidential primary. In 1968, Senator Eugene McCarthy famously came close to beating President Lyndon Johnson with 41.9 percent in a second-place finish, a few weeks after which LBJ officially bowed out. In 1984, Walter Mondale placed second with 27.9 percent behind Gary Hart (37.3 percent). Klobuchar’s 19.8 percent ranks the best of the rest. In 1952, Republican Harold Stassen won 7.1 percent – good for a distant third behind Dwight Eisenhower (50.4 percent) and Robert Taft (38.7 percent). The only other Minnesotan to win more than five percent in New Hampshire was Hubert Humphrey who notched 5.6 percent during his 1976 bid (sixth place).
HERBERT??
“…the BEST performance…” Using said metric, T Woodrow Wilson fared best in 1916, with 49.2%. Likewise, Grover Cleveland fared best in 1884, with 48.9%, for instances.
However, ‘best’ also may be defined in terms of RELATIVE STRENGTH, as opposed to highest/largest share of the total. By such yardstick, it is Senator Klobuchar who is the Minnesotan with the quote,unquote best showing in the NH presidential primary contest – by trailing her colleague Senator Sanders by a mere 5.9%, in contrast to Senator McCarthy and ex-Senator Mondale, each of whom trailed by greater % margins in 1968 and 1984.