
The New Hampshire primary added another dramatic turn to the 2016 presidential race, with candidates running on anti-establishment platforms trouncing more moderate challengers. Real estate mogul Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner, took 35 percent of the vote, more than twice that of the second-place finisher, Ohio governor John Kasich. Meanwhile, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders received a whopping 60 percent of Democrats' votes, with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--the narrow victor in last week's Iowa caucuses--finishing a distant second.
Well-known entrepreneurs took to Twitter and other platforms to voice their opinions about the primary results and their thoughts on what's been a surprising and chaotic election year so far. Among those who weighed in was Shark Tank star Mark Cuban, who has not been shy recently about making his views on the candidates known. Here's what he and others had to say.
Cuban asserted--not for the first time--that he's not a fan of fellow Texan Ted Cruz, linking to an unflattering article about Cruz campaign strategist Jeff Roe:
More reasons to not vote for Ted Cruzhttps://t.co/GfNEAGKxmr
-; Mark Cuban (@mcuban) February 9, 2016
Media mogul and magazine entrepreneur Steve Forbes, a candidate for president in 1996 and 2000, postulated that the Sanders win would pave the way for yet another well-known Democratic candidate:
#NHPrimary: Re Sanders big victory, drumbeat for Biden will grow louder.
-; Steve Forbes (@SteveForbesCEO) February 10, 2016
Hedge fund founder and billionaire John Arnold, like Forbes, saw an opening for another moderate candidate--one of his fellow billionaires:
The big winner tonight is the candidate not yet on the ballot: Mike Bloomberg
-; John Arnold (@JohnArnoldFndtn) February 10, 2016
Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington saw a hopeful sign in Kasich's second-place finish:
Compassionate Conservatism Roars Back: John Kasich Surprises In New Hampshire https://t.co/PJSJZ7Ybwd #NewHampshirePrimary
-; Arianna Huffington (@ariannahuff) February 10, 2016
News Corp owner and media titan Rupert Murdoch took aim at Hillary Clinton's concession speech:
Hillary speech awful point after point. Eg, better education but against charters, rein in Wall St which she will never do, etc.
-; Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) February 10, 2016
Venture capitalist and Netscape founder Marc Andreessen retweeted an image that captured some of the evening's sentiment:
Between Trump and Sanders I'm guessing what America really wants is this: pic.twitter.com/RMu0tsLOyy
-; Alex Bowles (@alexqgb) February 10, 2016
But perhaps it was Zipcar founder Robin Chase who best summed up the New Hampshire primary, in an email to Inc.:
"Crazy to see those results," she wrote. "They were unimaginable and impossible just a year ago."