Donald Trump has won the New Hampshire Republican primary, extending his lead in the GOP presidential nomination over his last opponent, Nikki Haley.
The former president, 77, is now moving closer to a renewed duel with Joe Biden in the November 2024 general election after winning his second election campaign in eight days.
The Associated Press called the race shortly after polls closed at 8 p.m. ET. The victory came about a week after his victory in the Iowa caucuses. Trump is the first Republican candidate in nearly 50 years to win both elections, a sign of his iron grip on the Republican Party. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden won the Democratic primary despite not voting in New Hampshire.
Trump and his team used his victories to pressure Nikki Haley to drop out of the presidential campaign.
“I think we're going to see the end of the primary, hopefully later tonight,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greeene said Tuesday morning as she campaigned for Trump at the Red Arrow Diner in Manchester. “It would be a good choice for Nikki Haley if she leaves after this election. 'She's not going to be well.'
Donald Trump on the campaign trail at an event in Londonderry, NH.
However, Haley has vowed to keep fighting.
“I don't do what he tells me.” “I've never done what he tells me,” she said Tuesday morning of Trump's calls for her to get out.
The former president shrugged.
“I don’t care if she stays home. Let her do whatever she wants, it doesn’t matter,” Trump said of Haley while campaigning in Londonderry on Tuesday afternoon.
But Trump's campaign used his victory to call on Haley to drop out, accusing her of helping Joe Biden and Kamala Harris by staying in the race.
“Nikki Haley said she's running to stop Harris-Biden from being re-elected.” But without a viable path to victory, every day she stays in this race is another day she faces Harris-Biden. campaign serves well. “It’s time for unity, it’s time to take the fight to the Democrats, and for Nikki Haley: it’s time to get out,” Taylor Budowich, CEO of Make America Great Again Inc., said in a statement.
Most polling places in New Hampshire closed at 7:00 p.m. and all polling places closed at 8:00 p.m. As soon as the screens announced his victory in Trump's primary, his supporters went wild, chanting “USA, USA” and throwing their red MAGA hats in the air.
Former Rep. George Santos at the Trump Primary Night Party in New Hampshire
Vivek Ramaswamy and Kari Lake handle the media dispute in Trump's primary party
Hopeful Nikki Halye supporters at her election night party
Trump hosts his election night party at the Sheraton Hotel in Nashua, New Hampshire. Before the polls closed, the mood was cheerful as campaign workers mingled with guests. There was an open bar and snacks.
Eric Trump and his wife Lara joined the campaign team for dinner at the hotel restaurant. On the way out they met Vivek Ramaswamy and stopped for a powpow. Kari Lake works in the press department and talks about Trump's campaign. Standing in line at the bar was former Rep. George Santos. Senator Tim Scott worked in the room.
Other guests took photos against a backdrop of flags while giant television screens showed the cable news channels as the countdown to the results began.
About 40% of registered voters in New Hampshire are unaffiliated and can vote in both primaries.
With the victory on Tuesday evening and his victory in the Iowa caucuses last Monday, Trump set a new record.
He was the first Republican presidential candidate to win open races in Iowa and New Hampshire since both states topped the electoral calendar in 1976.
The victories show his grip on the party and cast even greater doubt on Haley's ability to rein in it, even as an Associated Press poll found more voters in New Hampshire had doubts about Trump than voters in Iowa.
About half of Republican voters in New Hampshire said they were very or somewhat concerned about Trump being too extreme to win the general election. Only about a third said the same about Haley.
Trump was ahead by double digits in the polls in the run-up to Election Day. But Haley argues that there is a large group of independent voters who do not want to vote for the former president.
“Approximately 50 percent of Republican primary voters want an alternative to Donald Trump.” “75 percent of the country wants an option other than Donald Trump and Joe Biden,” her campaign wrote in a memo Tuesday morning.
They point to the Iowa caucuses as proof of their argument.
According to the results, the 110,000 voters who participated in Iowa's 2024 primary represented nearly 15% of the state's 752,000 registered Republicans. And that's a far smaller number than the 186,000 that came out in 2016.
But Trump's one-two victories are leading to a growing sense of inevitability that the 2024 general election will be a repeat of the 2020 contest: Trump vs. Biden. Polls show that most Americans don't want a rematch, even if the country is headed toward a rematch.
Eric Trump and Lara Trump speak with Vivek Ramaswamy as they await the New Hampshire results
Donald Trump is ahead by double digits in the polls ahead of the New Hampshire primaries
Nikki Haley said she won't give up on the race despite pressure from Team Trump
After winning the Iowa caucuses by 30 points, former President Trump called on the Republican Party to unite behind his candidacy.
Many Republican presidential candidates dropped out of the race and endorsed him: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Trump will head west after the Nevada primary. He is also still involved in the libel trial of Jean Carroll in New York.
Haley has announced she will hold a campaign rally in Charleston on Wednesday, a day after the New Hampshire primary and before the South Carolina primary. Haley's home state will host its nominating contest a month from now on February 24.