Former President Donald Trump has won the New Hampshire Republican Party primary, putting him on course to be the Republican party’s presidential nominee to face off against Joe Biden in November’s general election.
No presidential candidate has ever claimed victory in the first two contests and not won the party nomination, cementing Trump’s status as the GOP frontrunner. The win, which saw Trump secure 55 per cent of the vote, sees the former president become the first Republican to win both Iowa and New Hampshire in a competitive primary in nearly 50 years.
The Associated Press called Trump the winner within minutes of the final polls closing on Tuesday night, saying he had outpolled the former United Nations envoy by an “insurmountable margin”.
His victory comes as a blow to rival Nikki Haley, who, despite Trump’s triumph, vowed to continue to battle for the nomination in the South Carolina primaries, saying that the fight was “far from over.”
While Haley conceded defeat, she told supporters: “New Hampshire is first in the nation, it is not the last in the nation.”
It comes just three days after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis dropped out of the Presidential race and endorsed Trump.
DeSantis announced on Sunday that he did not have “a clear path to victory,” leaving just Trump and Nikki Haley in the race for the Republican nomination ahead of the New Hampshire primary.
Posting on X, he admitted that while he had “disagreements with Donald Trump,” he was “superior to the current incumbent, Joe Biden.”
During Trump’s victory speech, his former Republican rival Vivek Ramaswamy – who withdrew from the nomination race last week after the Iowa State Caucuses – appeared on stage with the former president.
“I say the general election begins tonight,” he added, predicting that “this man will win it in a landslide.”
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has been projected the winner of New Hampshire’s Democratic primary, despite the fact he was not on the ballot. While the Democratic party decided to skip the primary, Mr Biden relied on a write-in effort after New Hampshire refused to move its vote when the party decided South Carolina should be the first to vote.
“Despite President Biden’s absence from the ballot, Granite Staters still turned out in robust numbers to show their support for the great work that the Biden-Harris Administration has done to grow the economy, protect reproductive freedoms, and defend our democracy,” Democratic Chair in New Hampshire, Raymond Buckley, said in a statement.
The Biden campaign hit out at Trump’s comfortable win, saying that it was proof the Republican party had been taken over by “the election denying, anti-freedom Maga movement”.
A statement released by the party highlighted the issue of abortion, while accusing Trump of promising to undermine democracy.
“Trump is offering Americans the same extreme agenda that has cost Republicans election after election: promising to undermine American democracy, reward the wealthy on the backs of the middle class, and ban abortion nationwide,” it read.
“Joe Biden sees things differently. He’s fighting to grow our economy for the middle class, strengthen our democracy, and protect the rights of every single American.
“While we work toward November 2024, one thing is increasingly clear today: Donald Trump is headed straight into a general election matchup where he’ll face the only person to have ever beaten him at the ballot box: Joe Biden.”
In his victory speech, Trump thanked supporters, while saying that Haley had “failed badly” in New Hampshire.
“Haley can drop out or help the Democrats,” he told the rally, adding that his rival had suffered “a very bad night.”
The former president even accused Haley of trying to claim victory, telling cheering supporters: “We won New Hampshire three times now. She’s doing a speech like she won. She didn’t win. She lost.”
This is not your typical victory speech. But let’s not have somebody take a victory when she had a very bad night. She had a very bad night.”