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Americans witnessed a tight race for second place in the New Hampshire Republican primary Tuesday night.
GOP presidential candidates Ohio governor John Kasich, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz battled it out in the Granite State.
Kasich was confident of a strong finish leading up to the final count. He came in second to fellow GOP hopeful Donald Trump with 15 percent, followed by Bush and Cruz tied for third with 12 percent and Rubio with 10 percent.
During his victory speech, Kasich congratulated Trump for taking first place, but noted that "the real winner tonight is the conservative movement."
According to the early exit polls, it took Republican voters longer to choose which candidate to support.
“More than four in 10 Republican voters finally decided on their candidate just in the past few days,” reports ABC News. “Among Democratic voters, it’s about half that. Instead, three-quarters of Democratic voters say they made their choice a week or more ago.”