Donald Trump wins New Hampshire primary as rematch with Biden becomes increasingly likely

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MANCHESTER, N.H. — Donald Trump gained the New Hampshire main on Tuesday, tightening his grip on the Republican presidential nomination and bolstering the chance of a rematch later this 12 months towards President Joe Biden.

The outcome was a setback for former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who invested important time and monetary sources into profitable the state however completed second. She is the final main challenger within the race after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ended his presidential bid over the weekend, permitting her to marketing campaign as the only real various to Trump. Haley intensified her criticism of the previous president, questioning his psychological acuity and pitching herself as a unifying candidate who would usher in generational change.

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The appeals didn’t resonate with sufficient voters. Trump can now boast of being the primary Republican presidential candidate to win open races in Iowa and New Hampshire since each states started main the election calendar in 1976, a placing signal of how quickly Republicans have rallied round him to make him their nominee for the third consecutive time.

By posting simple wins in each early states, Trump is demonstrating a capability to unite the GOP’s factions firmly behind him. He’s garnered assist from the evangelical conservatives who’re influential in Iowa and New Hampshire’s extra average voters, energy he hopes to duplicate as the first shortly expands to the remainder of the U.S.

Haley was unable to capitalize on New Hampshire’s extra average political custom. Now, her path to turning into the GOP standard-bearer is narrowing shortly. She gained’t compete in a contest that awards delegates till South Carolina’s Feb. 24 main. Because the state’s former governor, she’s hoping a robust displaying there might propel her into the March 5 Tremendous Tuesday contests. However in a deeply conservative state the place Trump is exceedingly common, these ambitions could also be robust to understand and a home-state loss might show politically devastating.

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Haley vowed Tuesday evening to remain within the race and push forward to South Carolina.

“New Hampshire is first within the nation; it isn’t the final within the nation,” she mentioned. “This race is much from over. There are dozens of states left to go.”

About half of GOP main voters in New Hampshire mentioned they’re very or considerably involved that Trump is simply too excessive to win the final election, in line with AP VoteCast, a survey of the state’s voters. Solely about one-third say the identical about Haley.

President Joe Biden, in the meantime, gained New Hampshire’s Democratic main by way of a write-in effort after the state occasion moved ahead with its personal contest. Biden didn’t seem on the poll however allies helped him beat a collection of little-known challengers.

Trump’s place within the contest is exceptional contemplating he faces 91 felony prices associated to all the things from searching for to overturn the 2020 presidential election to mishandling labeled paperwork and arranging payoffs to a porn actress. He left the White Home in 2021 within the grim aftermath of an revolt on the U.S. Capitol led by his supporters who sought to cease the certification of Biden’s win. And Trump was the primary president to be impeached twice.

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However Trump has turned these vulnerabilities into a bonus amongst GOP voters. He has argued that the felony prosecutions replicate a politicized Justice Division, although there’s no proof that officers there have been pressured by Biden or anybody else within the White Home to file prices. Trump has nonetheless repeatedly advised his supporters that he’s being prosecuted on their behalf, an argument that seems to have additional strengthened his bond with the GOP base.

As Trump begins to pivot his consideration to Biden and a common election marketing campaign, the query is whether or not the previous president’s framing of the authorized instances will persuade voters past the GOP base. Trump misplaced the favored vote within the 2016 and 2020 elections and has confronted explicit struggles in suburban communities from Georgia to Pennsylvania to Arizona that would show decisive within the fall marketing campaign.

Past the political vulnerabilities related to the felony instances, Trump faces a logistical problem in balancing trials and campaigning. He has incessantly appeared voluntarily at a New York courtroom the place a jury is contemplating whether or not he ought to pay extra damages to a columnist who final 12 months gained a $5 million jury award towards Trump for intercourse abuse and defamation. He has turned these appearances into marketing campaign occasions, holding televised information conferences that give him a possibility to unfold his message to a big viewers.

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He has no selection however to seem in courtroom when the felony instances start, which might occur later this spring.

Biden faces his personal challenges, although of a distinct magnitude. There are widespread issues about his age at 81 years outdated. Dissent can be constructing inside his occasion over Biden’s alliance with Israel in its battle towards Hamas, placing the president’s standing in danger in swing states like Michigan.

Biden championed new Democratic Nationwide Committee guidelines which have its 2024 main starting on Feb. 3 in South Carolina, quite than in Iowa or New Hampshire. That left him in one thing of a clumsy place on the outset of the nomination course of.

However Democrats in New Hampshire defied the revamped order and held their main on Tuesday, identical because the Republicans. Biden didn’t marketing campaign, giving the state’s Democrats the possibility to assist main challengers together with Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and self-help creator Marianne Williamson — although lots of New Hampshire’s prime Democrats backed a write-in marketing campaign that Biden might nonetheless win.

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Trump traveled incessantly to New Hampshire within the months main as much as the first however didn’t spend as a lot time within the state as lots of his rivals. That included former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a fierce Trump critic who loved some recognition within the state however suspended his marketing campaign mere days earlier than Iowa’s caucuses in an try and blunt the previous president’s momentum.

Fairly than the standard strategy of greeting voters personally or in small teams, Trump has staged massive rallies. He has spent a lot of his time complaining in regards to the previous — together with the lie that the 2020 election was stolen because of widespread voter fraud.

If he returns to the White Home, the previous president has promised to enact a hardline immigration agenda that features stopping migrants from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and reimposing his first-term journey ban that initially focused seven Muslim-majority international locations. He’s additionally mentioned the rising variety of immigrants getting into the USA are “poisoning the blood of our nation,” echoing Adolf Hitler’s language.

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Colvin reported from Londonderry, New Hampshire. Weissert reported from Washington. The AP’s Invoice Barrow in Atlanta, Joseph Frederick in Franklin, New Hampshire, and Mike Pesoli in Laconia, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.

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