With 23 p.c of the votes counted, the Related Press stories that former President Donald Trump has crushed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, his lone remaining major opponent. With 25 p.c of the ballots counted, Trump has captured 53.6 p.c of the vote, in comparison with Haley’s 45.5 p.c.
Haley handily outperformed the latest polls, which had her shedding by over 20 p.c. Her concession speech was upbeat, vowing to combat on and taking just a few digs at Trump.
“With Donald Trump, Republicans have lost almost every competitive election,” she mentioned tonight. “You can’t fix Joe Biden’s chaos with Republican chaos.”
Nonetheless, she wasn’t working towards the polls; she was working towards Trump, who pulled off a transparent victory within the two-person race.
A majority of the Republican Get together seems to be consolidating round Trump. The previous couple of days additionally noticed him gather the endorsements of former opponents Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Tim Scott, and Doug Burgum.
Haley’s noticeably did not even web the endorsement of Chris Christie, probably the most anti-Trump of the previous GOP major contestants.
Even a few of Haley’s marketing campaign surrogates appear dissatisfied in her efficiency. Politico captured some awkward moments the place New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Haley backer, needed to watch his candidate flub interview questions whereas he whispered different solutions to himself.
Haley’s lack of private charisma was probably compounded by the truth that her marketing campaign largely skirted coverage points within the New Hampshire major, whereas Trump relentlessly attacked her for being comfortable on immigration, prepared to chop Social Safety, and allegedly prepared to boost taxes.
One subject the candidates did spar on was conflict and international intervention.
Haley’s stump speech in New Hampshire was heavy on calls to face as much as China, Russia, and Iran. In the meantime, Trump known as Haley a “warmonger” and his marketing campaign emails attacked her for being the candidate of “globalists.” (And in addition for allegedly being comfortable on China. Trump just isn’t precisely a constant dove himself.)
Haley just isn’t contesting the February 8 Nevada GOP caucus, the place Trump had 73 p.c within the polls earlier than DeSantis dropped out. Trump can be averaging 62 p.c help in South Carolina, which is able to maintain its major on February 24.
On the Democratic aspect, greater than 70 p.c of the votes at this stage of the counting are unprocessed write-ins, most of them presumably for President Joe Biden, whose title just isn’t on the poll. Rep. Dean Phillips (D–Minn.) and Marianne Williamson are presently getting 20 p.c and 4 p.c of the vote, respectively. Democratic candidate Vermin Supreme, recognized for promising free ponies and sporting a boot on his head, at the moment has 46 votes.
Due to a dispute between New Hampshire Democrats and the Democratic Nationwide Committee about when to carry the state’s major, not one of the state’s votes will really rely for something in figuring out the nomination.
The underside line: Tonight’s outcomes deliver us one contest nearer to the miserable prospect of a Donald Trump/Joe Biden rematch.