The New Hampshire primary showed that this election cycle's turnout will "meet or exceed 2008 levels," particularly among women, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said Wednesday.
"You look at the number of women who turned out and I think it was something like 55% of the Democratic turnout was women and something like 41% of the Republican turnout was women," Perez told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "That shows that the women who helped us win the U.S. House are out there in force."
He added that the exit polling proved interesting on Tuesday, as it showed 81% of voters said they were angry with President Donald Trump, compared to 62% angry in 2008 at then-President George W. Bush.
"There is a lot of energy out there," said Perez. "Again, this is a marathon, it's not a sprint. We've allocated 65 delegates, we have to get to 1,991 to move to the promised land. What this illustrates to me is that the work we're doing to build the key infrastructure in battleground states is critical. And that's why our battleground buildup is so, so important."
The Super Tuesday primaries will take the party to about 40% of the delegates needed, and with the Nevada caucuses coming up, "we are working tirelessly to make sure Nevada goes well."
Meanwhile, a conversation is needed about the issue of caucuses versus primaries after the problems experienced in Iowa earlier this month.
"We put in place rules in 2018 to incentivize states to go to primaries from caucuses," said Perez. "I think it's better to have states run those primaries. Now, you have to pass a state law to do it, and there are some states that have indicated that with their Republican leadership, they might not want to fund a state-run primary."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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