After a disappointing fifth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, the Minnesota senator made a series of bets in the Granite State.

Senator Amy Klobuchar knew she might have an opportunity in New Hampshire’s presidential primary.

As a fiscally moderate Democrat who opposes the “Medicare for all” and free four-year college plans of her liberal rivals, Ms. Klobuchar was in sync with the smaller-government tilt of plenty of Democrats in the state. Her emphasis on bipartisanship and pragmatism was a fit with New Hampshire’s large number of unaffiliated voters, or independents, who could participate in the Democratic primary. And she often mentioned her support for New Hampshire’s two centrist female senators, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan.

So in the aftermath of the chaotic Iowa caucuses, where her fifth-place finish might have derailed other candidates, Ms. Klobuchar placed a series of bets on New Hampshire that paid off big on Tuesday night with her surprise third-place finish in the primary. While she now has a huge challenge ahead — competing for support from Hispanic voters in Nevada and black voters in South Carolina, where she is far behind in polls — the fact that Ms. Klobuchar has a shot is because of an 11th-hour surge here that is usually the stuff of dreams for candidates.

The first bet came last week. With Ms. Klobuchar running just three percentage points behind former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in the Iowa caucus results, her campaign saw room to grow with moderate voters, and decided to charter a plane to bring more than 20 staff members from the Iowa campaign to New Hampshire to mount a furious six-day sprint.