Former President Donald Trump won New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation Republican primary, while President Joe Biden won the Democrat primary, despite having to rely on write-in votes and skipping out on campaigning in the state.
“Haley said she had to WIN in New Hampshire,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “SHE DIDN’T!!!”
Trump was given the projected victory by Newsmax right at 8 p.m. ET after the prompt call by Decision Desk HQ at the official closing of the polls.
Trump is the first Republican to sweep competitive votes in both Iowa and New Hampshire since 1976, when the two states cemented their status as the first nominating contests.
Trump’s victory in Iowa last week was a historic landslide and record margins, but the more independent state of New Hampshire figured to be better ground for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. It was, but still Trump pulled off the rare back-to-back victories in the first-in-the-nation caucus and primary states.
Trump’s margin of victory with around 94% of the vote tallied was more than 11 points, pulling in almost 55% support, holding a double-digit lead over Haley’s 43.5%. Trump was approaching almost 170,000 votes, a total that was around 55,000 more than the total votes cast in the Democrat primary.
“Such an honor: I just broke the all-time record for votes cast – both sides, democrat and republican – in the history of the New Hampshire primary!” Trump wrote in a 2 a.m. ET all-caps Truth Social post, still seething Haley did not drop out after the double-digit loss.
Trump’s big Iowa victory knocked out the rest of the field, while Haley came up short in her effort to carry momentum into her home state of South Carolina next month.
“Could somebody please explain to Nikki Haley that she lost – and lost really badly. She also lost Iowa, BIG, last week,” Trump wrote in another Truth Social post. “They were, as certain Non-Fake Media says, ‘CRUSHING DEFEATS.'”
Trump is expected to roll in the Feb. 8 Nevada caucus uncontested. Haley is not on the caucus ballot but is on the ballot for the state-run Nevada primary on Feb. 6, but no GOP delegates are at stake in that primary.
“New Hampshire is first in the nation, it is not last in the nation: This race is far from over,” Haley said in a speech delivered quickly after the polls closed and the race was called.
“I’m a fighter. And I’m scrappy. And now, we’re the last one standing next to Donald Trump.”
Trump responded via Truth Social, apparently during her speech.
“DELUSIONAL!!!” Trump wrote, adding, “SHE CAME IN THIRD LAST WEEK!”
On the Democrat side, Biden supporters mounted a write-in campaign on his behalf to avoid a loss, even though the contest awards no delegates because it violates the national party rules he pushed for.
“Tonight’s results confirm Donald Trump has all but locked up the GOP nomination, and the election denying, anti-freedom MAGA movement has completed its takeover of the Republican Party,” the Biden campaign wrote in a statement Tuesday night.
The results will likely increase calls from some Republicans for Haley to drop out of the race, though her campaign vowed in a memo Tuesday to push forward until “Super Tuesday” in early March, when Republicans in 15 states and one territory vote on the same day.
The next GOP primary after Nevada is 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 Gov. 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.
New Hampshire was the first contest to feature a one-on-one matchup between Trump and Haley, after DeSantis, once seen as Trump’s most formidable challenger, dropped out Sunday and endorsed Trump.
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