Donald Trump, the ex-President, is expected to have secured a comfortable victory in the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary. Shortly after the polls closed, both The New York Times and The Washington Post projected Trump as the winner of Tuesday’s primary, defeating former Ambassador Nikki Haley.
By 10 pm ET, Trump maintained a lead of about 9 points over Haley, with approximately 52% of the votes counted, according to The Times.
Haley celebrated the night as a “great night” and extended congratulations to Trump for his triumph.
Haley stated, “New Hampshire is first in the nation, it is not the last in the nation,” during a Concord, New Hampshire, rally on election night. “This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go.”
Trump criticized Haley’s dependence on independent voters all night, disregarding the fact that he employed a similar strategy in 2016. When speaking to his supporters, the former president took care to underscore that he emerged victorious.
In reference to Haley’s speech, Trump remarked, “She didn’t win, she lost.”
The ex-president described New Hampshire as a “very special place,” reminiscing about depending on the Granite State to recover from a close loss in Iowa during his initial presidential campaign in 2016.
“So this was a great evening and I want to thank everybody in the audience and I want to thank the people that are standing behind me,” Trump stated.
Haley’s campaign has firmly stated well before the results were revealed that she isn’t bowing out. However, New Hampshire provided her with a favorable setting that may prove challenging in the upcoming weeks.
The next formal showdown is set for South Carolina’s primary on February 24th, which is Haley’s home turf. Despite this, polls indicate that Trump is likely to outperform the former governor, posing a potentially embarrassing outcome.
Her best chance is to endure until Super Tuesday, when the delegate race intensifies. She’s openly adopting Trump’s 2016 playbook, aiming to draw independent voters into the GOP primary process.
Leading Republicans are already advocating for an effective end to the primary. Just before New Hampshire, Trump showcased a series of endorsements tied to South Carolina, emphasizing his commitment to challenging Haley.
While Trump is far from the required delegate count to be the party’s “presumptive” nominee, he and his allies are leveraging early victories to reinforce the narrative that attempts to thwart him are futile.
Tuesday’s victory also marks the second occasion Trump has secured a state despite a sitting governor endorsing one of his rivals. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu openly criticized the former president in the race’s final days, yet, similar to Iowa, enough Republican voters chose to overlook their state’s top GOP official.
Trump has the backing of Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, sparing him from a comparable situation for the time being.
On the Democratic side, despite an unsanctioned primary, President Joe Biden is projected to have emerged victorious.
Interestingly, Biden’s name didn’t even appear on the ballot, as the Democratic National Committee penalized New Hampshire for insisting on maintaining its status as the first primary state, ahead of South Carolina as promoted by the party.
