(Headline USA) On the heels of the largest margin of victory for a non-incumbent in the Iowa caucuses, former President Donald Trump notched another historic win by becoming the first non-incumbent GOP candidate to win both the Iowa and New Hampshire nominating contests since both states began leading the election calendar in 1976.
President Joe Biden, meanwhile, won New Hampshire’s Democratic primary via a write-in effort after the state party moved forward with its own contest. Biden did not appear on the ballot but allies helped him beat a series of little-known challengers after the Democratic National Committee pressured more serious contenders from entering the race.
Trump’s decisive victory over his former U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley—the last major GOP challenger left standing—bolstered the likelihood of a rematch later this year against President Joe Biden—assuming Biden becomes the eventual Democratic nominee.
“Nikki Haley said she’s running to stop the re-election of Harris–Biden,” wrote Taylor Budowich, CEO of Make America Great Again Inc., in a statement following Trump’s win.
“Yet, without a viable path to victory, every day she stays in this race is another day she delivers to the Harris–Biden campaign,” Budowich continued. “It’s time for unity, it’s time to take the fight to the Democrats, and for Nikki Haley: it’s time to drop out.”
The result was a setback for Haley, who invested significant time and financial resources into winning the state but finished second. After Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ended his presidential bid over the weekend and endorsed the former president, she had campaigned as the sole alternative to Trump.
By posting easy wins in both early states, Trump is demonstrating an ability to unite the GOP’s factions firmly behind him. He’s garnered support from the evangelical conservatives who are influential in Iowa and New Hampshire’s more moderate voters, strength he hopes to replicate as the primary quickly expands to the rest of the U.S.
Haley was unable to capitalize on New Hampshire’s more moderate political tradition. Now, her path to becoming the GOP standard-bearer is narrowing quickly. She won’t compete in a contest that awards delegates until South Carolina’s Feb. 24 primary.
As the state’s former governor, she’s hoping a strong showing there could propel her into the March 5 Super Tuesday contests. But in a deeply conservative state where Trump is exceedingly popular, those ambitions may be tough to realize and a home-state loss could prove politically devastating.
Many of the state’s current leaders joined Trump onstage over the weekend to show their support, and he received a key endorsement from Sen. Tim Scott, whom Haley had originally appointed to his seat.
Nonetheless, Haley vowed Tuesday night to stay in the race and push ahead to South Carolina.
“New Hampshire is first in the nation; it is not the last in the nation,” she said. “This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go.”
Some NeverTrumpers hold out hope that the multiple lawfare attacks against Trump will begin to erode his base of support if he is indicted. Thus far, the 91 counts against him from far-left prosecutors have only served to reinforce his supporters’ determination while bringing sympathetic new supporters into his camp.
As Trump begins to pivot his attention to Biden and a general election campaign, the question is whether the former president’s framing of the legal cases will persuade voters beyond the GOP base. He has faced particular struggles in suburban communities from Georgia to Pennsylvania to Arizona that could prove decisive in the fall campaign.
Although currently leading Biden in all of the major swing states, questions remain as to whether it will be sufficient to overcome the systemic vote fraud that leftists have only been able to perfect since the stolen 2020 election, when they were able to reverse the then-sitting president’s election-night victories by flooding several key blue-run cities and counties with mail-in ballots.
Beyond the political vulnerabilities associated with the criminal cases, Trump faces a logistical challenge in balancing trials and campaigning.
He has frequently appeared voluntarily at a New York courtroom where a jury is considering whether he should pay additional damages to Manhattan socialite and gossip columnist E. Jean Carroll. Last year, Carroll—who is being funded by anti-Trump billionaire Reid Hoffman and advised by lawyer George Conway—won a $5 million jury award—stemming from an event she claimed had occurred in the mid-1990s.
Trump has turned these appearances into campaign events, holding televised news conferences that give him an opportunity to spread his message to a large audience.
He has no choice but to appear in court when the criminal cases begin, which could happen later this spring.
Biden faces his own challenges, though of a different magnitude. There are widespread concerns about his age at 81 years old. Dissent is also building within his party over Biden’s alliance with Israel in its war against Hamas, putting the president’s standing at risk in swing states like Michigan.
Biden championed new DNC rules that have its 2024 primary beginning on Feb. 3 in South Carolina, rather than in Iowa or New Hampshire. That left him in something of an awkward position at the outset of the nomination process.
But Democrats in New Hampshire defied the revamped order and held their primary on Tuesday, same as the Republicans.
Biden didn’t campaign, giving the state’s Democrats the chance to support primary challengers including Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and self-help author Marianne Williamson—though many of New Hampshire’s top Democrats backed a write-in campaign that Biden could still win.
Trump traveled frequently to New Hampshire in the months leading up to the primary but didn’t spend as much time in the state as many of his rivals.
That included former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a fierce Trump critic who enjoyed some popularity in the state but suspended his campaign mere days before Iowa’s caucuses in an attempt to blunt the former president’s momentum.
Rather than the traditional approach of greeting voters personally or in small groups, Trump has staged large rallies, befitting his larger-than-life stature as one of America’s greatest presidents.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
