Former President Donald Trump won New Hampshire's Republican presidential primary on Tuesday.
Trump's victory marks his second of the nominating contest. He also won last week's Iowa caucuses.
Given that he has won the first two nominating events by comfortable margins, he and his backers seem to be eager to set their sights past the remaining primaries and caucuses and onto November's general election.
Trump's victory also doesn't come as much of a surprise as polling showed he had a comfortable lead over Nikki Haley, who served as the ambassador to the United Nations during Trump's presidency. Haley was hoping that an upset in New Hampshire could give her momentum going into next month's primary in South Carolina, where she was governor prior to joining the Trump administration.
Haley conceded the New Hampshire primary Tuesday evening.
Although Trump's margin of victory in New Hampshire will be smaller than his win in Iowa, it will likely go down as a sizable win for the former president.
Turnout appeared to be strong, as the Boston Globe reported that several townships requested additional ballots to meet demand.
The field faced a major shake-up on Sunday when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis exited the race amid flailing poll numbers. A Monmouth University-Washington Post poll released Monday showed DeSantis would have had an estimated 8% of the vote. The poll was taken before DeSantis' announcement on Sunday.
The same poll showed Trump leading with 52% of the vote compared to Haley's 34%.
With 91% of the vote in from Tuesday, Trump was leading Haley 54.8-43.5, perhaps indicating some making up their minds last minute went for Haley.
Tuesday's primary comes eight days after Trump won the Iowa caucuses with over 50% of the vote.
There were 22 delegates up for grabs. New Hampshire allocates delegates proportionally among all candidates getting at least 10%. Decision Desk HQ projects Trump will win at least 12 delegates, while Haley will win at least nine. There is one left to divvy.
For the entire nominating contest, there are 2,429 delegates, meaning it takes 1,215 to secure the GOP's nomination.
Despite the second-place finish, Haley said she is committed to staying in the race.
"I have news for all of them. New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last," Haley said to cheers. "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."
But Trump seemed to think the race is already over as polls show him well ahead of Haley.
"She had a very bad night," Trump said. "She did very poorly. Actually, she had to win. The governor (New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu who backed Haley) said she's gonna win, she's gonna win, she's gonna win. Then she failed badly."
Meanwhile, many leading Republicans say it's time to unite behind Trump's campaign.
"I endorsed President Trump because he delivered on promises to unleash our economy, secure our border, make America energy independent, and achieve peace through strength — and I believe he will do so again as President, while helping us to grow the majority in Congress," House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote. "I encourage Republicans to unite behind President Trump so we can achieve victory in November and end the disastrous Biden presidency."
Decision Desk HQ and Scripps News projected that President Joe Biden will win New Hampshire's Democratic primary contest.
Biden was not present on the state's primary ballot due to recent changes by the Democratic National Committee on which states hold their Democratic primaries first.
But thanks to a robust write-in effort by supporters in New Hampshire, President Biden is expected to still carry the state in the Democratic race.
"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," Biden's election campaign said in a statement after the results were published. "While we work toward November 2024, one thing is increasingly clear today: 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."
Thanks to rules that were changed before this year's presidential contest got underway, there are no delegates from Democrats up for grabs on Tuesday.
This is because Biden unofficially pushed for South Carolina to be the first state to award delegates this election cycle.
"For decades, Black voters in particular have been the backbone of the Democratic Party but have been pushed to the back of the early primary process,” Biden wrote to officials with the Democratic National Committee in 2022. "We rely on these voters in elections but have not recognized their importance in our nominating calendar. It is time to stop taking these voters for granted, and time to give them a louder and earlier voice in the process."
The DNC made the changes — which means that Tuesday's "first in the nation" primary in New Hampshire ran afoul of the new rules, and rendered its delegates ineligible.
Biden is generally popular in the state regardless.
According to polling of Democratic primary participants by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, more than 8 in 10 New Hampshire Democrats approve of Biden's overall handling of the economy.
Roughly 8 in 10 approve of the administration's efforts to address student debt. But only about half approve of how the White House is handling the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
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