Former President Donald Trump is projected to win the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary, according to The Associated Press.
Trump led Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who served as his ambassador to the United Nations, by a margin of 54.1 percent to 44.3 percent as of 10:30 p.m. Eastern time, with 63% of precincts reporting. In the raw vote count, Trump led by nearly 20,000 votes, with the margin expected to grow larger.
While that's not the blowout victory Trump was hoping for, it's also not a narrow enough margin for Haley to claim a moral victory. She is likely to remain in the race, at least for now, but polling data had suggested that New Hampshire was her best shot for an upset win over the former president. Trump appears to hold large leads in the next states to vote, including Nevada (a Feb. 8 caucus) and Haley’s home state of South Carolina (a Feb. 24 primary), where she trails Trump by at least 30 points. Haley is the last significant candidate standing against Trump in the Republican field. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dropped out or the race and endorsed Trump over the weekend after finishing a distant second in the Iowa caucuses.
Trump, who won the Iowa GOP caucus by 30 points last week, sought to project an image of unity ahead of the contest, appearing at a Monday rally with former primary rivals Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
“Every day the Republican Party is becoming more and more unified,” Trump claimed during a rally in Laconia, New Hampshire. “We started off with 13 (opponents) and now we are down to two people, and I think one person will be gone probably tomorrow.”
Despite the ex-president's gesture toward a unifying theme, the rally highlighted the most extreme aspects of Trump’s candidacy.
“Twelve years of Trump!” a man in the rally crowd shouted.
“You’re right,” Trump responded. “Don’t say that too loud. ... You know they love to call me a fascist.”
At another point in the Laconia rally, as organizers played theme music associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory, another man in the crowd shouted “Free the J6ers!”
“We will," Trump replied, describing those arrested for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as “hostages.”
In Haley's final campaign appearances in New Hampshire, she sought to warn GOP voters that nominating Trump could badly backfire on the party.
“Republicans have lost the last seven out of eight popular votes for president, and that is nothing to be proud of,” she said. “We should want to win the majority of Americans — but the only way we’re going to do that is if we elect a new generational conservative leader.”
It was not initially clear on Tuesday evening whether Haley will remain in the race after falling short in New Hampshire. Her campaign has already reserved ad time in South Carolina, although several prominent state Republicans, including Scott and Rep. Nancy Mace, have endorsed to Trump.
Haley’s campaign said earlier Tuesday it hopes to keep her candidacy alive through Super Tuesday on March 5, when primaries will be held in 16 states.
"This has always been a marathon. It's never been a sprint," Haley said at an event in Hampton, New Hampshire.
Trump’s campaign is hoping Haley will capitulate before South Carolina in hopes of turning their attention to President Joe Biden. A Trump adviser told The Washington Post that the campaign intends to “make it miserable” for Haley as long as she stays in the race.
