Former President Donald Trump took a giant step closer to a third consecutive Republican presidential nomination in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, holding off former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to complete a sweep of the first two GOP contests.
Meanwhile, President Biden won the New Hampshire Democratic primary, despite not being on the ballot and leaving supporters to write his name in.
With 91% of the Republican vote expected to come in, Trump led Haley with 54.8% to 43.2% support – a smaller margin than most polls suggested he would win going into the primary day and close enough for Haley to tell cheering supporters in Concord that she will continue racing at least through the primary in his home state Feb. 24.
Moments later, the 77-year-old 45th president took the stage in Nashua to deliver a mock victory speech aimed at his last major challenger in the GOP field.
“Who exactly was the impostor who took the stage earlier and claimed the victory?” Trump asked as his supporters chanted “Bird Brain!” referring to the former president’s nickname for his ambassador to the United Nations. “He did it very badly, actually.”
Live election results from New Hampshire
The former president, flanked by former 2024 contenders Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and allies like Rep. Right-leaning Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) also mocked GOP New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu for supporting Haley, telling the crowd “she needs to do something” before again demanding that the former South Carolina governor leave the race.
“Ron [DeSantis] beat him too,” Trump said, referring to the Florida governor’s performance in the Iowa caucuses last week. “Remember, Ron came in second, and he left.”
The former president was boosted into the Granite State by several endorsements from elected officials — including DeSantis after he dropped out of the race Sunday.
As in Iowa, Trump’s camp intends to leave nothing to chance, with the man himself telling supporters to turn out in large numbers because “margins matter” and successive blowouts will send a message of “unity” in the GOP.
Donald Trump speaks after his primary victory in New Hampshire. AP
Trump also flooded New Hampshire with top surrogates — including No. 4 House Republican Elise Stefanik (R-NY) in addition to Scott, Greene and Ramaswamy – while her campaign made hundreds of thousands of phone calls in an effort to increase voter turnout.
For Haley, New Hampshire is seen by many as her best chance to defeat the GOP frontrunner, with some polls showing her within four percentage points of the former president.
The former UN envoy leaned heavily on the state’s large population of independent voters and veterans, focusing on her vision for the economy, foreign policy and her husband’s military experience.
On the morning of the primary, Haley’s campaign vowed to fight at least through Super Tuesday on March 5, when 16 states and territories hold their nominating votes.
“After Super Tuesday, we’ll have a very good picture of where this race stands … Until then, everyone should take a deep breath,” campaign manager Betsy Ankney wrote in a memo.
Trump took a giant step closer to his third consecutive Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday. AP
Haley’s path forward will be uphill.
He did not register for the Nevada caucus on Feb. 8 and instead entered the Feb. 6 nonbinding primary, meaning he was ineligible for a delegate.
Haley said Sunday she chose not to compete with Trump in the caucus because Silver State was already “bought and paid for” by his campaign.
In South Carolina, meanwhile, Haley is now polling more than 30 points behind Trump, averaging 21.8% to his 52.0%, according to RealClearPolitics.
With 87% of the estimated votes counted in the Democratic primary, Biden has recorded 37.2% support, more than enough to defeat his closest challenger, Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), who received 19.6% of the vote.
Trump supporters celebrate the former President’s announced victory at a New Hampshire rally. Reuters
As of early Wednesday, another 30.8% of votes in the Democratic race were unprocessed write-in ballots, most expected to go to Biden as well and pushing his share comfortably above 50%.
Self-help author Marianne Williamson was a distant third, with 4.8% of the vote.
Biden refused to register for the New Hampshire primary following a calendar dispute between the Democratic National Committee and state officials.
The DNC had tried to move the nation’s first primary to South Carolina on February 3, but New Hampshire refused to comply, as state law required it to hold its primary at least a week before any other state.
New Hampshire is Nikki Haley’s best chance to lead the GOP. Aristide Economopoulos Haley waves to the crowd at a rally in New Hampshire. Reuters
To counter Biden’s rudeness, state Democratic officials are putting their clout behind the “Write-in Biden” initiative, which stations volunteers at polling places, puts up signs and sends out mailers instructing voters on what to do on primary day.
Longtime Democratic strategists worry that Biden’s absence from the ballot could lead to a repeat of the 1968 primary, when then-President Lyndon B. Johnson was also off the ballot and announced he would not seek another term following a narrower-than-expected term. won over Sen. Eugene McCarthy (D-Minn.)
Phillips said Tuesday night that Biden had “really won tonight, but not in the way that a strong incumbent should” before vowing to “go to South Carolina, and then we’ll go to Michigan and then we’ll go to 47 other states.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
