He consolidates his position as the ultra-favorite of the right. Donald Trump defeated his rival Nikki Haley in the New Hampshire Republican primary on Tuesday, January 23, moving a little further towards his party’s nomination for the November presidential election. Here is what to remember from this new election.
Trump the invincible?
No Republican who won both the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries has ever lost their party’s nomination. With this in mind, Donald Trump is on the rise. Especially since for the moment, his legal troubles do not seem to have any impact on his popularity. Charged four times with criminal charges and sued for defamation, the ex-president regularly appears in court between two campaign meetings.
All eyes are now on Nevada, where Donald Trump assures that his victory is guaranteed, then towards South Carolina next month, the state of which Nikki Haley was governor and where he is ahead of her by around thirty points in polls.
All 50 American states will have their say in the long primary process, but it is possible that the Republicans will have their candidate as early as April, or even earlier. “I say the election starts tonight,” said Vivek Ramaswamy, who was a candidate for the White House before siding with Donald Trump, referring to a duel with President Joe Biden.
Haley doesn’t throw in the towel
Nikki Haley admitted defeat but insisted that she was “a fighter”. And “this race is far from over,” she insisted. However, his position is precarious. She finished third in Iowa and finds herself about ten points behind the real estate mogul in New Hampshire. Her donors risk abandoning her and forcing her to throw in the towel.
“If Haley can’t compete with Trump in South Carolina, her race is over,” Russ Muirhead, a professor at Dartmouth College, told AFP.
An angry speech
Although he congratulated himself on a “great evening”, Donald Trump also gave a speech full of anger, calling the United States a “bankrupt country” and railing against Nikki Haley refusing to swear allegiance to him. He also launched into tirades about immigration and gas prices, and claimed – without further details – that Nikki Haley could soon find herself the target of an “investigation”. He finally promised to take revenge on those who anger him.
“I don’t get too angry, I return the favor,” he said. Nikki Haley’s campaign team quickly responded to her “furious” and “disjointed” speech. “If Trump is in such good shape, why is he so angry?” she asked.
Detailed surveys
Exit polls have revealed details about Republican voters, raising questions about Donald Trump’s ability to mobilize outside of his most fervent supporters. They support him at all costs. Asked whether he was fit to be president even if convicted of a crime, 87% said yes. But among Nikki Haley’s more moderate supporters, only 12% gave the same answer.
86% of Donald Trump supporters also said they did not believe that Joe Biden won the 2020 election, compared to 13% of Nikki Haley’s supporters.
Biden victorious without being on the ballot
Joe Biden also scored a victory on Tuesday in New Hampshire: he won the Democratic primary even though he did not even appear on the ballot, due to a disagreement with the local branch of the Party over the calendar electoral.
And while Donald Trump and Nikki Haley faced off in this northeastern state, he campaigned to defend abortion rights in Virginia. A theme that risks weighing heavily during the presidential election. He accused the 77-year-old tycoon and his supporters of wanting “at all costs” to further restrict access to abortion.
After the New Hampshire vote, the president said that Donald Trump would obviously be the Republican nominee. “The stakes could not be higher. Our democracy. Our individual freedoms […]. Our economy […]. Everything is at stake,” he wrote.