George W. Bush Republican George W. Bush Republican The 2004 United States presidential election in New Hampshire took place on November 2, 2004, and was part of the 2004 United States presidential election.

New Hampshire was won by Democratic nominee John Kerry by a 1.4% margin of victory.

However, like the rest of New England, it is considerably more liberal on social issues, which benefits Democratic candidates.

Primary polling taken by American Research Group during the last few days of campaigning (January 23 to January 27, 2004) showed that former New Hampshire poll leader, as well as national leader Howard Dean, was steadily gaining ground to catch up to now front-runner John Kerry.

Gathered from ARG's 2004 NH Democratic Tracking Poll[1] Margin of Error +/- 4 Tracking polling showed that Dean had been catching up to Kerry in the days before the primary, cutting Kerry's 18 point lead to 10 points in a matter of days.

With Dean dropping and Kerry rising, it became apparent that the battle for 1st place in New Hampshire would be close.

Earlier returns showed Lieberman in a stronger position to tie with Clark and Edwards, allowing him to declare to his supporters that it was "a three-way split decision for third place.

The final 3 polls averaged Kerry leading 48% to 47%, with the undecided voters, making up just 3%, deciding the election.

[10] New Hampshire, historically considered to be a more conservative state compared to the rest of New England, had by the early 2000s become a swing state in presidential elections, having voted for Democrat Bill Clinton twice in the 1990s but narrowly choosing Republican George W. Bush in 2000.

[12] On election day, Kerry won with just over 50% of the vote, with a small margin of victory, as expected from the polls.

Bush's best performance was in Belknap County, which he won with over 55% and carrying every single town.

This would later be repeated when Donald Trump won the county over Joe Biden in 2020 despite losing the presidential election that year.

Bush became the first ever Republican to win the White House without carrying Sullivan County.