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Here’s are highlights from the 2024 campaign trail
- It's primary day in New Hampshire, where former President Donald Trump and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley squared off in their first one-on-one contest after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis exited the race Sunday. NBC News projected Trump as the winner of the GOP primary.
- President Joe Biden won the state's Democratic primary, NBC News projected. The national party isn't recognizing the contest, but supporters of the president organized a write-in campaign that gave him the edge over long-shot candidates like Rep. Dean Phillips and author Marianne Williamson.
- Trump aimed to solidify his GOP front-runner status after he won the Iowa caucuses last week. Haley had hoped her strength with independent voters could lift her to an upset.
4 exit poll numbers that explain Trump’s New Hampshire primary win
Trump’s dominance among the GOP’s base voters fueled his victory in the New Hampshire primary, according to NBC News exit poll results.
While former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley managed to win independent, or “undeclared,” voters, Trump’s wide margins among self-identified Republican and conservative voters were too vast to overcome. Just like last week’s Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary also underscored how Trump’s ardent supporters have taken over the Republican base.
Here are four numbers from the NBC News exit poll that help explain Trump’s win.
New Hampshire Democratic chair suggests Phillips should exit race
In an interview, New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley suggested that Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota should exit the race.
“I think he was certainly given a level playing field here, ample opportunity to get his message across," Buckley said. "I don’t see the path where other states are as welcoming."
Buckley added, "I think he should take this as a win, as an accomplishment for getting nearly 20%. And I think that let’s look forward to seeing how do we have a successful November, bringing back the House majority, holding, expanding the Senate majority ... and re-electing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.”
Nikki Haley refuses to throw in the towel and looks toward South Carolina
CONCORD, N.H. — From inside a hotel ballroom, with supporters whistling, screaming and bouncing campaign signs around her, Nikki Haley wasn’t about to let this be her last stand.
On the night of her second-place finish in New Hampshire, Haley, the former United Nations ambassador and governor of South Carolina, pledged to plow forward to her home state, insisting she still had a path.
“I have news for all of them. New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last,” Haley said to cheers. “This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go and the next one is my sweet state of South Carolina.”
Haley still had a Charleston rally planned for Wednesday and had already started spending money on a previously announced $4 million ad buy there.
Trump declares victory in Nevada. It hasn't voted yet, but he has a point.
In his victory speech, which was largely devoted to attacks on Haley, Trump ribbed her for her declaration that South Carolina was next on the GOP primary calendar, noting correctly that Nevada comes first. Then, he made a pronouncement that would usually seem peculiar.
"I'm pleased to announce we just won Nevada," Trump said onstage.
What's he talking about? Well, a new law enacted in 2021 requires Nevada to hold a state-run primary, but the state GOP is rebelling against that. It's holding its own caucuses, which alone will decide how the state's convention delegates are allocated, and it declared that any candidate running in the state-run primary can't compete in the caucuses.
As my colleague Natasha Korecki explained last year, some Trump opponents bristled at the caucus rules and the state party's closeness with Trump. And a handful of candidates, including Haley, decided to join the state-run primary ballot instead of the caucuses.
So the only active candidates left on the caucus ballot are Trump and pastor Ryan Binkley, who won 0.7% in Iowa and had won just 0.1% of the votes counted in New Hampshire as of 9:45 p.m. ET.
Trump invites rivals-turned-allies to speak during victory speech
Trump invited former GOP rivals-turned-allies to address the crowd during his victory speech after his projected win.
Vivek Ramaswamy called tonight's results "America first defeating America last." He continued to praise Trump and bash Haley, arguing the general election starts tonight.
Later, Trump invited Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina to address the crowd. Scott argued that it was "time for the Republican Party to coalesce around our nominee."
Both Ramaswamy and Scott have previously joined Trump on the trail after they dropped out.
This is Biden's first-ever New Hampshire win
Biden has run for president four times, but he never did well in New Hampshire. In 1988 and 2008, he withdrew before he even made it to the state. In 2020, he came in fifth. And this year, he won — as a write-in candidate.
Trump boasts winning New Hampshire 'every time,' despite two losses
“We won New Hampshire three times now, three. We win it every time, we win the primary, we win the generals,” Trump claimed in his victory speech tonight.
Trump has won three Republican primaries in New Hampshire, but he has yet to win a general election there: He lost to Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020.
“If you remember in 2016, we came here, and we needed that win, and we won by 21 points, and it was great,” he said.
Trump won that primary by 19 points.
Sen. Lindsey Graham throws shade on Haley's hopes for South Carolina
Responding to Haley's optimism about the possibility of a strong performance in her home state, South Carolina, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., posted that voters there "do not share [her] assessment of President Trump" and that they will "be allowed to speak soon."
Graham, once an outspoken critic of Trump, has become a strong ally of him and has, along with many other South Carolina officials, endorsed him.
Haley to address Virgin Islands GOP (via Zoom) tomorrow
Haley has vowed to take her campaign to South Carolina, where she used to be governor and where Republicans will hold a primary on Feb. 24.
But she also is carving out some time for the U.S. Virgin Islands. GOP leaders there have been working hard to drum up interest in their Feb. 8 caucuses, and in a statement tonight Chairman Gordon Ackley announced that Haley will address party members tomorrow morning. An email from Dennis Lennox, the executive director of the Virgin Islands GOP, noted that Haley will appear via Zoom — not in person.
Trump was invited to address the same gathering, according to Lennox's email, but he has opted to send Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, to represent him at Commit to Caucus receptions Friday and Saturday.
“The 2024 Republican nomination is no different than any previous nomination in that it is decided by delegates coming out of all 56 states and territories,” Ackley said. “Our neutral state party created a fair and level playing field that attracted eight Republican candidates, of whom two are still active candidates. As a result, we have seen unprecedented attention.”
These 3 voters supported Biden in 2020. But they'll vote for Trump if he beats Haley for the nomination.
LACONIA, N.H. — Nancy Simoneau, Paul Simoneau and Devon Mello all have something in common: They voted for Nikki Haley in the New Hampshire primary but would vote for Trump in a Trump-vs.-Biden rematch.
All three of them voted for Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020, and they would vote for Trump if he ends up being the nominee in the general election. The Simoneaus called Trump “unstable” and a “criminal” and questioned why he has so much support.
Paul Simoneau explained that they are fearful of the flip side: “Kamala Harris stepping in if something happens to President Biden.”
He summed it up as being “caught between a rock and a hard place.” He added, “We’re not enamored with Trump whatsoever. We do not want that. Unfortunately, President Biden is getting a little old.”
Both of them voted for Haley because they feel the country needs “young blood.”
Mello called Haley “a very powerful candidate who speaks her mind.”
“I feel that she has a very positive approach on securing our country moving forward, especially for a promising future,” she said.
Asked why she would vote for Trump in a hypothetical rematch with Biden, Mello said, “He’s produced extreme change in this country, especially in developing those positive relationships with other countries overseas and everything, especially for positive changes in our economy, as well.”