Former President Donald Trump won New Hampshire’s Republican presidential primary on Tuesday, defeating former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and moving him closer to a rematch with President Joe Biden this fall.
Trump’s victory, after a big win in the Iowa caucuses, marks the first time in the modern primary era that the same non-incumbent candidate has won both the Iowa and New Hampshire Republican contests. His hold on the GOP further solidified, Trump’s campaign on Tuesday night sent a fundraising text to supporters declaring, “THIS RACE IS OVER!”
It’s a crushing blow to Haley’s 2024 hopes and those of the party’s anti-Trump factions. New Hampshire’s primary electorate is much more moderate than other early voting states, thanks to nearly 40% of the state’s voters being registered as “undeclared” and allowed to participate in the primary of their choosing. Polls consistently showed Haley, who was Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, performing best among moderate voters and those eager to move on from the former president.
Haley, though, insisted Tuesday night that she plans to stay in the race and delivered, during her concession speech New Hampshire, some of her sharpest lines of attack on Trump since the campaign began nearly a year ago.
“New Hampshire is first in the nation, it is not the last in the nation,” Haley told supporters in Concord. “This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go. And the next one is my sweet state of South Carolina.”
Haley is the last candidate standing in the way of Trump’s third consecutive Republican presidential nomination, after entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out following a disappointing fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis exited on Sunday.
She’d sought to portray Trump, who will be 78 by Election Day in November, and Biden, who will be 81, as past their primes and “equally bad.”
In her Tuesday remarks, Haley pinned recent Republican election failures on Trump, while also warning of the potential backlash to his criminal indictments and questioning his mental acuity following an incident in which the former president confused Haley with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“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.”
Eight days after a delighted Trump gave a mostly gracious speech following his Iowa caucus victory, a plainly angry and frustrated Trump spent the majority of his New Hampshire speech railing against Haley.
“Who the hell was the impostor that went up on the stage that went before and claimed victory?” Trump said. “She did very poorly actually.”
Trump first responded – in real time as Haley spoke – in a series of social media posts calling her campaign a lost cause and demanding she drop out.
“Haley said she had to WIN in New Hampshire,” Trump wrote. “SHE DIDN’T!!!”
Moments after Haley began her remarks, he continued: “DELUSIONAL!!!” “SHE CAME IN THIRD LAST WEEK!” Trump wrote in a third post.
Outside groups aligned with Haley appear to disagree.
Mark Harris, executive director of the pro-Haley super PAC SFA Fund, told CNN they’re “on to South Carolina” and plan to spend millions on ads, direct mail and more.
“Trump struggled to get 50% in two states,” Harris said, suggesting that the twice-nominated former president is shedding overall support in the race, his third consecutive presidential campaign.
While Haley had a prominent supporter in New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu – as demonstrated by DeSantis’ loss in Iowa despite Gov. Kim Reynolds’ endorsement – there are limits to a popular Republican governor’s influence when stacked up against Trump.
It wasn’t enough to stop Trump from making history by becoming the first non-incumbent Republican in modern presidential politics — since the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary moved to the front of the nominating calendar — to win both states.
The campaign manager for Biden, who spent the day with Vice President Kamala Harris in Manassas, Virginia, rallying to “restore Roe” and codify abortion rights, said in a statement late Tuesday that the Democrat expects Trump to be his opponent in November.
“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,” Julie Chavez Rodriguez said. “Donald Trump is headed straight into a general election matchup where he’ll face the only person to have ever beaten him at the ballot box: Joe Biden.”
Focus shifts to South Carolina
The next contest is in Nevada — but Haley has already ceded that state to Trump. Circumventing the state’s primary, where Haley will on the ballot on February 6, the Nevada GOP opted to award its delegates instead through caucuses that will take place on February 8. Haley chose to file for the primary and not the caucuses, which means Trump is certain to dominate in the delegate-awarding contest.
Her next real shot at Trump would come on February 24, when her home state of South Carolina holds its primary.
The “first in the south” primary has a long history of picking presidential nominees. It’s where Biden cemented his status as the Democratic front-runner in 2020 and where Trump’s win thinned out a still-crowded GOP field in 2016.
Already, Trump has sought to embarrass Haley with a raft of Republican endorsements from her former allies in her home state. Sen. Tim Scott, who Haley appointed to the Senate when she was governor in 2013, and Rep. Nancy Mace, who Haley supported against a Trump-backed challenger in 2022, both endorsed Trump in recent days.
“I have watched the political class line up with Donald Trump. I have fought the political class all my life. You won’t see the political class with me in South Carolina,” Haley said at a Monday campaign stop in Franklin, New Hampshire.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Ebony Davis contributed to this report.