Donald Trump has won the New Hampshire primary, likely cementing his place as the Republican presidential nominee.
The win over Nikki Haley, who had briefly threatened to rein in the former president, suggests there will be a smooth path to the GOP nomination for Trump, who also won easily in the Iowa caucuses last week. Addressing supporters in Nashua, Trump took a victory lap with a combative speech that included sharp criticism of Haley.
“She had a very bad night,” Trump said. “She came in third [in Iowa], and she’s still hanging around.”
The Associated Press called the race just as the last remaining polling places in New Hampshire closed at 8pm ET, following a contentious primary that saw groups backing both candidates spending millions of dollars in increasingly vicious TV advertising.
Haley, who branded Trump a “chaos” candidate, promised a more palatable version of the rightwing fire and brimstone that has come to characterize the Republican party. She surged in the polls in New Hampshire in mid-December, but could not capitalize on that momentum on Tuesday night.
Despite her disappointing performance in New Hampshire, Haley insisted she would continue on to her home state of South Carolina, which will hold its Republican primary next month. As she spoke to supporters in Concord on Tuesday, Haley congratulated Trump on his victory in the first primary state, but emphasized the importance of upcoming races.
“New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last in the nation,” Haley told supporters in Concord. “This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go, and the next one is my sweet state of South Carolina.”
But polls show Trump maintaining a significant lead in South Carolina, so it is unclear how that primary might reshape the dynamics of the race. New Hampshire appeared to represent the last significant threat to what seems set to become a Trump coronation. In a purple state that voted for Joe Biden over Trump in 2020, Haley presented herself as a centrist Republican, while Trump continued to proffer rightwing populism in a series of rallies in recent days. Haley was Trump’s only serious contender in New Hampshire, after Ron DeSantis dropped out of the race on Sunday.
As he addressed supporters, Trump derided Haley’s efforts to downplay her loss in New Hampshire, saying: “Let’s not have somebody take a victory when she had a very bad night.”
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Trump’s team similarly ridiculed Haley’s decision to stay in the race after two decisive losses, with one of the former president’s strategists mocking her as “delusional”. Appearing undaunted, Haley stuck to her campaign message that Trump was incapable of leading the Republican party into a more promising future, referencing the former president’s numerous legal battles. Trump has now been charged with 91 felony counts across four criminal cases, and he spent much of the past week in court for a defamation case.
“With Donald Trump, you have one bout of chaos after another – this court case, that controversy, this tweet, that senior moment,” Haley said on Tuesday night. “You can’t fix Joe Biden’s chaos with Republican chaos.”
But Trump’s routine continues to appeal. Tina Lorenz, who said she had supported Donald Trump since 2016, was among those who voted for the former president on Tuesday.
“He is representing the American people. He is not out for himself. He’s not out for political gain. He’s not out for financial reasons. He doesn’t need money, he doesn’t need fame and fortune. He already has all of that,” Lorenz, 63, said.
“He is out there for the average person. And that’s what’s happening, we’ve become so polarized, that there’s nobody out there for just regular people.”
The result in New Hampshire suggests Trump will become his party’s presidential candidate for the third election in a row, and will likely face Biden in November. After Trump’s wins in Iowa and New Hampshire, more and more Republican lawmakers are lining up to endorse him. Speaking at Trump’s victory party on Tuesday, former presidential candidate Tim Scott, who dropped out of the primary race in November and endorsed the former president last week, called on Republicans to unify.
“It is time for the Republican party to coalesce around our nominee and the next president of United States: Donald Trump. Let’s get that party started tonight,” Scott said.
Despite Haley’s claims to the contrary, Democrats also clearly believe the Republican presidential primary is effectively over, and they are already turning their attention to the general election.
“Tonight’s results confirm Donald Trump has all but locked up the GOP nomination, and the election denying, anti-freedom Maga movement has completed its takeover of the Republican party,” said Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign manager. “While we work toward November 2024, one thing is increasingly clear today: Donald Trump is headed straight into a general election matchup where he’ll face the only person to have ever beaten him at the ballot box: Joe Biden.”
