2024-01-24 09:39:50
He has done it again. Former President of the United States Donald Trump triumphed this Tuesday in the second vote of the New Hampshire primaries by overcoming his only obstacle to controlling the Republican Party: the candidacy of Nikki Haley, who presents herself as a moderate alternative from the right .
Pending the final results, which the local Secretary of State may take days to release, media projections give the former president an advantage that is close to double digits over the former US ambassador to the UN: with the 80 of the votes counted recorded respective percentages of 54.1% and 44.5.
Although only 22 delegates of the 2,429 who will participate in the Republican National Convention in July, where the presidential candidate will be established, are distributed in the New Hampshire primary, the contest was an important test for Haley’s convening power.
The former diplomat, who worked until 2018 in the Trump Administration, hoped to obtain a strong result in the state, where independent and moderate voters make up more than half of the electorate.
And although he obtained more votes than expected, his proposal failed to resonate with Republican voters, among whom he received only 25% support, according to an exit poll published by CNN.
An energized Trump
Surrounded by a group of his most ardent supporters within the party, including South Carolina Senator Tim Scott and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the former president mocked Haley, calling her an imposter. “She had to win here and she lost, it went very very badly,” she said.
In the lobby of the Sheraton hotel in Nashua, where the Trump campaign rented an event room to celebrate its election night, dozens of his followers listened excitedly to the former president’s victory speech.
“We’re going to take back the White House!” shouted Dan, a 55-year-old carpenter, resident of that town, who approached the hotel dressed in a red shirt and cap, decorated with Trump’s campaign slogan “Let’s make America “America great again.”
“Our president is back and I am happy because he will return and work for all of us,” the American, who asked to hide his last name, told EFE. “The lives of people of all races will be much better under Trump.”
The race is not over
From her campaign headquarters in Concord, about 60 kilometers from where Trump celebrated, Haley congratulated the former president but warned that she has not given up yet. “New Hampshire is the first (primary) in the nation, but not the last,” she stressed minutes after the major American media announced her projections. “The race is far from over. There are dozens of states left,” said the former ambassador.
Haley focused her last speeches in New Hampshire on presenting herself as a conservative option, but less “chaotic” than Trump, to take advantage of the rejection of the former president’s figure and try to gather enough support in the state.
His proposal resonated among independents, among whom he obtained 60% support, but not so much among Republicans, with 25% of the votes among this group, according to that exit poll published by CNN.
Biden, the “de facto” candidate of the Democrat
The president, Joe Biden, also won his party’s primaries in New Hampshire this Wednesday, despite the fact that he had not officially appeared in them. He barely needed 1% of the votes to have been counted for networks like NBC News and Fox to declare him the winner.
After learning of Trump’s victory, the Biden campaign issued a statement stating that the former president has now “practically assured” the candidacy: “He has completed his takeover of the Republican Party,” he noted.
The next stop in the Republican primary process will be Nevada on February 8 and on the 24th of that month in South Carolina, Haley’s home state, where she hopes to gain momentum.
In the Iowa caucuses on Monday last week, Trump came in first with 51% of the vote, followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (21.2%), who has since withdrawn. Haley got 19.1% and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, who has also abandoned the fight, 7.7%.
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