Donald Trump won New Hampshire’s Republican presidential primary election, further asserting his dominance over the party as he heads toward a likely November rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden.
With 14% of the expected vote tallied, according to Edison, Trump had 52.3% compared with 46.6% for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who had hoped the Northeastern state’s sizable cadre of independent voters would carry her to an upset win that might loosen Trump’s iron grip on the Republican Party.
Instead, Trump will become the first Republican to sweep competitive votes in both Iowa – where he won by a record-setting margin eight days ago – and New Hampshire since 1976, when the two states cemented their status as the first two nominating contests.
While the final margin was still unclear, the results will likely increase calls from some Republicans for Haley to drop out of the race, though her campaign vowed in a memo on Tuesday to push forward until “Super Tuesday” in early March, when 16 states vote on the same day.
South Carolina
The next contest is scheduled for Feb. 24 in South Carolina, where Haley was born and served two terms as governor.
Despite her ties, however, Trump has racked up endorsements from most of the state’s Republican figures, and opinion polls show him with a wide lead.
Haley finished third in Iowa, just behind Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, while focusing much of her early campaign on New Hampshire, where the more moderate electorate was expected to offer perhaps her best chance of winning a state over Trump.
“You just want to keep getting stronger and stronger and stronger. That’s our goal,” Haley said earlier in the day in Manchester.
First contest
New Hampshire was the first contest to feature a one-on-one matchup between Trump and Haley, after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, once seen as Trump’s most formidable challenger,
dropped out on Sunday and endorsed Trump.
Despite Trump’s win on Tuesday, however, exit polls hinted at his potential vulnerabilities in a general election campaign.
He faces four sets of criminal charges for a range of offenses, including his efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat and his retention of classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021.
