Nikki Haley said last week that New Hampshire voters would have an opportunity to “correct” the results of the Iowa caucuses when they headed to the polls Tuesday. Whether they did depends on Haley’s definition of a course correction. Trump secured a solid — although not a total landslide — victory in the Granite State, further thinning the former South Carolina governor’s already-long odds of unseating the former president atop the Republican Party.
The Associated Press called the race for Trump a little after 8:00 p.m. local time.
The result figures to be closer than the 30-point margin Trump won by in Iowa. The former president tempered expectations ahead of the polls closing, complaining on Truth Social that it’s “SO RIDICULOUS THAT DEMOCRATS AND INDEPENDENTS ARE ALLOWED TO VOTE IN THE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY.”
Democrats are not allowed to vote in the New Hampshire primary, despite Trump’s claim, although the state not requiring voters to be registered Republicans does seem to have helped Haley. One CNN exit poll found that 70 percent of Trump voters were registered Republicans, while 70 percent of Haley’s did not declare a party affiliation.
Haley invested more in the Granite State than any other Republican, spending a staggering $30 million in ad buys, most of them targeting former President Trump, who dumped $15 million into the state. All in all Haley’s efforts to market herself as a well rounded, younger, and more experienced alternative to Trump weren’t worth the big bucks. She vowed to not drop out regardless of the result Tuesday night, but it wouldn’t be shocking if she soon ceded the stage to Trump given that fell short in what may have been her best chance to truly take hold of the race.
If she does stay in the race, she’ll be on an island. Between the Iowa caucuses last Monday and the New Hampshire primary, both Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis suspended their campaigns and endorsed the former president. After months being publicly humiliated by Trump — and running the most cringe-heavy campaign in recent memory — the Florida governor folded like a lawn chair and declared Trump a “superior” candidate to President Joe Biden, promising to support his tormentor in the general election. Ramaswamy has already started campaigning with Trump, as has former candidate Tim Scott, a senator from Haley’s home state of South Carolina.
Haley has attacked Trump more than the other candidates who have dropped out and endorsed the former president, especially in the days leading up to New Hampshire. After the former president bragged that he “aced” a cognitive exam — and then promptly confused Haley with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during a rally — Haley hit Trump over his mental acuity. “Don’t be surprised if you have someone that is 80 in office, their mental stability is going to continue to decline. That’s just human nature,” Haley told CBS News’ Face The Nation. During the same interview, Haley skewered the former president over his cozy relationship with authoritarian leaders. “You can’t have someone who’s trying to buddy up with dictators that want to kill us,” Haley said. “Instead, you have to let them know what we expect of them. That’s the difference.”
Much like in Iowa, Trump failed to secure the endorsement of the state’s Republican governor. Chris Sununu, who has been highly critical of the former president since his departure from office, endorsed Haley, telling Fox News on Tuesday that if Trump “is off the teleprompter he can’t keep a cogent thought.” When host Harris Faulkner joked that she would love to see a debate between the governor and the former president, Sununu responded that he “would pay to do that if that coward [Trump] would get on the stage with anybody.”
The former president responded by calling Sununu a “loser” who is “all jacked up on something,” in a Truth Social post later that day.
Trump has also, of course, been attacking Haley, even referring to Haley as “Nimbra,” a racist play on her first name, Nimarata. On Sunday, he told Fox News that the nickname was essentially an attack on Haley’s Indian heritage. “It’s just a little takeoff on her name — wherever she may come from. I look at her name. I look at a lot of people. I do a lot of names for people. Some people say I’m very good at that,” he said.
Trump’s history of berating his opponents with below-the-belt jabs typically considered off-limits for presidential hopefuls clearly isn’t costing him at the ballot box, as the former president has now all but locked up the nomination before the end of January.
Even before solidifying his win in New Hampshire, Trump seemed confident that Haley would soon bow out of the race, and clear his path to a rematch with Biden. “We started off with 13 [candidates] and now we are down to two people, and I think one person will be gone probably tomorrow,” Trump told supporters during a Monday night rally, anticipating that Haley will make like DeSantis and suspend her campaign. When asked on Tuesday about Haley potentially staying in the race, Trump replied, “I don’t care” and “it doesn’t matter.”
Haley has said that she plans to stay in the race through March. “I don’t care how much y’all want to coronate Donald Trump,” she told Fox News. “At the end of the day, that’s not what Americans want. Americans want a choice.“
New Hampshire may have been closer than Iowa, but it still seems pretty clear that Republican voters have already made up their mind.
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