Here's the latest from the 2024 campaign trail:
- Former President Donald Trump held a campaign rally tonight in New Hampshire, where he's seeking to capitalize on his massive Iowa victory ahead of the state's primary on Jan. 23.
- After finishing second in Iowa, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis campaigned in South Carolina but had to cancel a New Hampshire stop because of snow. Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is stumping in New Hampshire.
- Haley says after her close third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses that she will debate only Trump or President Joe Biden going forward, leading ABC News to cancel its New Hampshire debate scheduled for Thursday.
- After his distant fifth-place finish in Iowa, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson ended his campaign, saying, "My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front-runner did not sell in Iowa."
- Trump was endorsed tonight by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, meaning he now has endorsements from a majority of Senate Republicans.
Rep. Dean Phillips talks UFOs with New Hampshire voters
At a diner stop in New Hampshire, Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota found himself discussing UFOs — officially known as unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs — with two voters.
Phillips, a Democratic presidential candidate, told the voters that he doesn't believe in UFOs, but he called up his friend and colleague Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who launched the UAP caucus in Congress. The Republican voter in the booth and the diner got a kick out of speaking with Burchett.
At another table, four voters said that while they liked Phillips, they would be writing in Biden's name during next week's primary.
Biden's allies are pushing a write-in campaign to help him win the Granite State, which he is technically not competing in, after he directed the Democratic National Committee to make South Carolina the first Democratic contest of the nominating process.
Steve Kornacki revisits the Republican primary race between John McCain and George W. Bush and points out how Haley’s advantages with independents could be used against her with Republican purists the way Bush turned the tables on McCain.
New poll finds Trump leading Biden in Georgia
A new Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll, conducted by the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs, finds Trump leading Biden by 8 percentage points in the battleground state of Georgia, 45% to 37% among registered voters — a result that’s outside the margin of error.
Another 7% said they would support another candidate, 6% said they won't vote, and 6% said they didn’t know.
The poll is consistent with other recent battleground surveys showing Trump ahead of Biden. But the standard caveat: We’re still nearly a year out before the general election.
The poll also has Biden’s approval rating in Georgia at 32% approve, 62% disapprove. That compares with Republican Gov. Brian Kemp at 57% approve, 31% disapprove.
The poll of 1,007 registered voters was conducted Jan. 3-11, and it has a margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points.
N.H. Gov. Sununu: Haley will be 'clear and only second place, maybe even a winner'
In an interview with NBC News' Hallie Jackson, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican who has endorsed Haley, expressed hope for her chances in his state after she placed third in Iowa.
Sununu predicted that Haley will have a "strong second-place" finish, adding that she would not be like DeSantis in Iowa, "barely trying to squeak out second place with a point over Nikki." Rather, he said, she will be the "clear and only second place, maybe even a winner," in next week's primary.
Ted Cruz endorses Trump: 'I believe this race is over'
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, endorsed Trump tonight on Fox News, saying he doesn't see a path to the GOP nomination for any of the other candidates.
“I’m a big believer in letting democracy play out. Well, last night it played out,” said Cruz in reference to Trump’s dominating Iowa caucuses victory. “I believe this race is over. So I am proud to endorse Donald Trump for president of the United States.”
“I don’t see any path to victory for anyone other than Donald Trump,” he told Fox News' Sean Hannity. “New Hampshire may be closely contested. … After New Hampshire, it will go to South Carolina. I believe in South Carolina you’re going to see Trump win a dominating victory.”
Cruz’s endorsement means 25 of the 49 Republicans in the Senate have endorsed Trump.
Cruz bested Trump in the 2016 Iowa caucuses, a bitter campaign battle in a cycle in which Trump insulted Cruz’s wife and claimed Cruz’s father was an associate of JFK’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.
Trump goes after Haley in N.H. as Ramaswamy joins him onstage
ATKINSON, N.H. — Trump took aim at Haley in remarks tonight, directing more criticism at her than at DeSantis, who came in second in the Iowa caucuses last night.
Trump said Haley “in particular is counting on the Democrats and liberals to infiltrate your Republican primary.”
He called her speech in Iowa last night "inappropriate," touted his poll numbers, claimed that Haley was “not tough enough” to work with people and suggested that she was a “disaster” when she served in his administration as U.N. ambassador.
Ramaswamy, who dropped out of the GOP primary campaign last night and endorsed Trump, joined the former president onstage this evening to deliver remarks and was met by chants of “veep” from the crowd.
Biden video: 'I’m still the only person to ever beat Donald Trump'
Biden posted a video to X the day after the Iowa caucuses, reiterating that he's still the only candidate to have defeated Trump.
"You know, it's kind of funny. All these Republican candidates in the primary are trying to beat Donald Trump," Biden said. "And I'm still the only person to ever beat Donald Trump, and I'm looking forward to doing it again for the good of this country."
After Trump was projected to win Iowa last night, Biden said on X that the election "was always going to be you and me vs. extreme MAGA Republicans." His campaign sent out a similar fundraising email.
Trump, the Republican front-runner, is calling on his rivals to unite with him after his historic Iowa win. Haley is focusing on New Hampshire, where she has risen in polls, while DeSantis has moved on to South Carolina after a second-place finish in Iowa.
GOP strategist says Trump's Iowa win doesn't guarantee N.H. victory
Jim Merrill, a prominent New Hampshire campaign strategist, said today on NBC News' "Top Story with Tom Llamas" that Trump cannot rely on the momentum of Iowa to ensure a win next week in New Hampshire.
“New Hampshire hasn’t looked to Iowa for direction on the primary. Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum — none of them did well in New Hampshire. So I think it was a good night for [Trump], but it stands alone as an Iowa night,” he said.
Merrill, who has been an adviser to multiple GOP presidential campaigns, including Sens. Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio, said he believes Haley will benefit from the number of undecided voters in New Hampshire.
He also said New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu is playing a key role in Haley's prospects for next week. “If you see what Chris Sununu has done for Nikki Haley since his endorsement of her six weeks or so ago, he’s not only done enormous work here on the ground ... traveling with her everywhere," Merrill said. He has also made "personal phone calls to bring people over to her team.”
DeSantis is in survival mode as Haley battles Trump in New Hampshire
MANCHESTER, N.H. — DeSantis doesn’t have to win next week’s New Hampshire primary. But he needs Haley to lose.
That’s the view inside DeSantis’ inner circle on the heels of a distant second-place showing yesterday in the Iowa caucuses, which nonetheless allowed DeSantis to say he got his “ticket punched” to continue campaigning. His 2-point margin over Haley was thinner than his advisers had hoped for but far better than the death knell of the third-place finish they had feared.
“He’s staying in,” a DeSantis supporter familiar with the campaign’s thinking told NBC News. “If Nikki loses New Hampshire — which is her best chance out of all states to win — and loses her home state of South Carolina right after, she will need to get out, and we get our two-man race.”
DeSantis advisers said the campaign is busy collecting data and plotting a post-Iowa path forward through at least the South Carolina primary in late February. At a DeSantis finance team meeting at the Surety Hotel in Des Moines, Iowa, this morning, campaign manager James Uthmeier painted the picture of a difficult but manageable fundraising environment for the campaign, two sources familiar with the meeting said.
“Going to be tough sledding,” said another DeSantis supporter familiar with the thinking. “The sentiment is we have and can raise the resources to get through South Carolina.”