Concord, N.H.— Former president Donald Trump won New Hampshire’s primary on Tuesday, chalking up a victory in the moderate state that many saw as possibly the last big hurdle on his path to become the Republican nominee for the third consecutive presidential cycle.
Trump appears to have defeated Nikki Haley, his one-time United Nation’s ambassador, by double digits. Although Haley has vowed to remain in the race, without a win on Tuesday it will likely be difficult for the former South Carolina governor to continue to make the case to voters and donors that she still has a viable path to defeat her former boss.
For Trump, who is dominating national polls despite facing 91 felony charges, Tuesday’s win further establishes him as the overwhelming favorite to be the nominee. But for a candidate running like an incumbent, losing more than 40 percent vote may be a red flag.
Trump was winning with 54.5 percent of the vote to Nikki Haley’s 43.2 percent, with more than 90 percent of the vote counted. The Associated Press called the race for Trump just after 8 p.m., soon after the last precincts closed.
Taking the stage at his headquarters at about 9:20 p.m., Trump declared that “we had one hell of a night,” and that it was a “great victory.” But he spent much of his time on stage bashing Haley, who spoke to her crowd first. A clearly annoyed Trump said Haley talked like she won, but he said she was an “imposter” who “did very poorly” and “failed badly.”
“This is not your typical victory speech, but let’s not have somebody take a victory when she had a very bad night,” said Trump, who, among other things, took aim at Haley for wearing a “fancy dress.”
Trump also argued that he, not Haley, would be the the strongest Republican in a matchup against President Joe Biden in November, and he continued to falsely claim that he actually won the 2020 election, but Democrats “used Covid to cheat.”
“If you remember, we won in 2016. And if you really remember, and you want to play it straight, we also won in 2020. By more,” Trump said.
Haley spoke to her supporters early, at about 8:20 p.m., and congratulated Trump on his win, saying that he “earned it, and I want to acknowledge that.”
Haley said that while she lost, she had won “close to half the vote” and she’s rising in polls. The political class, she said, is “falling all over themselves saying this race is over.
“I have news for them. New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not last in the nation,” she said. “This race is far from over.”
With Trump at its head, the Republican Party has lost the House, the Senate, the White House, in 2018, in 2020, and in 2022, Haley said. A Haley supporter shouted out that Trump is a “loser.”
“The worst kept secret in politics is how badly the Democrats want to run against Donald Trump,” Haley said. She said Trump would lose to Biden, but she would beat him “handily.”
“With Donald Trump you have one bout of chaos after another,” Haley said. “This court case, that controversy, this tweet, that senior moment. You can’t fix Joe Biden’s chaos with Republican chaos.”
Haley, who finished a distant third place to Trump in last week’s Iowa caucuses, pinned her hopes on a strong showing in New Hampshire to propel her into a showdown with the former president next month in South Carolina, her home state. She believed that by being the last major Trump alternative standing, she could assemble a winning coalition in New Hampshire, where unaffiliated voters could cast ballots in the Republican primary.
On the Democratic side, Biden, running as a write-in candidate, defeated Minnesota Representative Dean Phillips, who is running a long-shot campaign against the 81-year-old. Worried about Biden’s age, Phillips contends that “the country would be well served by a new generation of compelling, well-prepared, dynamic” Democrats.
The New Hampshire primary isn’t officially recognized by the Democratic National Committee, and Biden’s name wasn’t on the ballot.
Exit polls found that Tuesday’s electorate in the GOP primary was closely divided between registered Republicans and voters who have not declared a party affiliation. On Truth Social, Trump called it “SO RIDICULOUS” that non-Republicans are allowed to participate in the Republican primary, “ESPECIALLY SINCE CROOKED JOE BIDEN HAS ABANDONED NEW HAMPSHIRE.”
The polls found Trump won handily among registered Republicans, while Haley did best on Tuesday with independents.
After casting a vote for Trump on Tuesday afternoon in Salem, N.H. Denise Gardener said the country needs a president who will lower gas prices and make it easier for younger Americans to buy homes. She said she wasn’t very familiar with Haley. “She’s new to me,” Gardener said. “The only things I’ve heard and seen her say was contradictory to the first thing that she says.”
Henry Ahern of Plymouth, N.H., told National Review at Haley’s election night party that he supported Haley because of her work as U.N. ambassador, and because of her pledge to control the national debt. “I hope she continues no matter how she goes tonight,” he said.
Eric Jostrom, a Haley supporter from Sugar Hill, N.H., said at the candidate’s election night party that he “would like to see her get 40 percent or more of the vote. I think that’s a good number shoot for.”
The exit polls found that the vast majority of Haley’s voters said Trump would not be fit to be president if he is convicted of a crime in one of his ongoing legal cases.
Haley’s attempt to take Trump down in New Hampshire always appeared to be a long shot. The most recent Real Clear Politics average of polls showed Trump winning support from 55.8 percent of Granite State voters to Haley’s 36.5 percent. The polling still showed 8 percent support for Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who dropped out over the weekend and endorsed Trump. Even if all his support went to Haley, she still would have been behind.
The final Globe/Suffolk/NBC10 tracking poll released on Tuesday showed Trump with 60 percent support in New Hampshire to Haley’s 38 percent.
After the Iowa caucuses, Haley called her campaign “the last best hope of stopping the Trump-Biden nightmare.” In New Hampshire this week, she sold herself as the real outsider in the race. It was Trump, not her, “who’s got the entire political elite all around him,” she said.
On Sunday, Haley received the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper’s endorsement.
Still, the political winds seemed to be against her. Politico on Tuesday described Haley’s campaign events in New Hampshire as “modest” and “listless.”
In recent days and weeks, many of Trump’s most prominent former political foes — DeSantis, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, North Dakota governor Doug Burgum — fell in line to support the former president. Haley’s fellow South Carolinians, Senator Tim Scott and Representative Nancy Mace, whom she had supported in the past, have also thrown their support to Trump.
Some of Haley’s supporters and volunteers in New Hampshire told National Review that even with DeSantis out they were doubtful that Haley could pull out a win.
Ahead of the vote, Haley’s team, including New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, tampered expectations. Sununu previously claimed that Haley could win the state, but over the weekend he said that wasn’t necessary for her to continue pursuing Trump into Super Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Haley’s campaign manager released a memo claiming that the “political class and the media want to give Donald Trump a coronation.” But, that “isn’t how this works,” it read.
While “members of Congress, the press, and many of the weak-kneed fellas who ran for president are giving up and giving in — we are not going anywhere,” the memo continued. “Nikki is the last hope to get our party and our country back on track. And we’re going to get the job done.”
Polls in South Carolina show it will be an uphill climb for Haley there. Real Clear Politics polling averages show Trump with 52 percent support in the Palmetto State to Haley’s 21.8 percent. The rest is divvied up among Republicans who have already ended their campaigns.
While Trump remains popular among most Republicans, he is toxic to many moderates and independent voters. Democratic strategists aligned with President Joe Biden say they are Jonesing to run against Trump again, because they expect he’ll motivate the Democratic base to turn out.