Here are the highlights from the 2024 campaign trail
- NBC News projected former President Donald Trump the winner of New Hampshire's Republican presidential primary against former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley yesterday, a victory driven by dominant support from self-identified GOP voters.
- Trump is the first nonincumbent GOP candidate to win both Iowa and New Hampshire. He is calling for Haley to end her race so the Republican Party can coalesce behind him.
- Haley, who performed well among self-identified moderates, has vowed that the race is not over, and she will travel to New York City on Monday and Tuesday to court Wall Street donors at multiple fundraisers, according to two campaign sources.
- President Joe Biden received the endorsement of the United Auto Workers union. The union's endorsement could be key in the battleground state of Michigan, which narrowly went for Biden in 2020 after backing Trump by a razor-thin margin in 2016.
Biden team ramps up strategy for dealing with more protests — from the left and the right
WASHINGTON — Biden’s advisers and Democratic Party leaders have been preparing for more than the usual political protests on the campaign trail this year, from both the left and the right, and recently began crafting a plan to address them, according to four people familiar with the planning.
As part of the strategy, Biden advisers are seeking to confront dynamics that only recently emerged: an uptick in protests of Biden’s policy on the Israel-Hamas war and demonstrators’ making it difficult for guests — and in at least one instance, a host — to attend his events.
Such instances have become more frequent as the war in Gaza continues with Biden’s steadfast support for Israel. Today, pro-Palestinian protesters were dragged and carried out of a United Auto Workers event in the middle of his speech. A day earlier, he was interrupted by demonstrators calling for a cease-fire more than a dozen times at an event his campaign promoted as his kickoff to the general election. The apparent coordinated effort included intermittent chants of “genocide Joe,” forcing Biden to deliver a choppy marquee speech.
Trump’s calls for GOP ‘unity’ face two big hurdles: Ron DeSantis and Trump
As he watched the Iowa caucus results rolling in from a holding room on the night of Jan. 15, Trump decided to scrap four pages of prepared remarks about what would turn out to be a resounding victory — in which he outdistanced his nearest competitor by more than 30 percentage points.
With sons Don Jr. and Eric on hand, as well as his senior staff, Trump went over the thrust of what he wanted to say and jotted down a few notes — “with the theme of unity,” according to a person who was there and described the scene to NBC News.
When he took the stage that night at his victory party, Trump didn’t mention the rivals looking to deal him an upset a week later in New Hampshire at all. Instead, he focused on contrasting his agenda with the record of Biden, his once and likely future general election opponent. He used the word “we” in nearly every sentence, including the one that embodied his message to Republicans: “We’re going to come together.”
The one Republican who didn’t quite get it: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Biden’s campaign says 2024 GOP primary is over and voters have a ‘clear choice’
Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign said today that it’s essentially entering the general election phase of the 2024 cycle now that Trump has won New Hampshire’s GOP primary.
“The results out of New Hampshire confirm that Donald Trump has all but locked up the GOP nomination and the election-denying anti-freedom MAGA movement has completed its takeover of the Republican Party,” Biden-Harris campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez told reporters on a media call.
The choice voters face in November is coming into sharp focus, she said: Voters will have to choose between Trump, who she said is “running a campaign of revenge and retribution that threats American democracy,” and Biden and Harris, who are trying to “move the country forward and make life better for working people.”
Biden’s principal deputy campaign manager, Quentin Fulks, said on the call that the primary election cycle so far has shown that Trump is struggling to gain the support of independent voters. Fulks said Trump and Republicans have “blown through major resources” during the GOP primaries, while the Biden-Harris campaign is “scaling up our operation.”
Trump, the Republican front-runner, secured a double-digit victory in New Hampshire and is looking to unite the party. Despite her decisive loss, Haley insists the race is not over and she is focusing on her home state of South Carolina.
Analysis: Biden, Trump and voters’ stages of grief
It’s the rematch nobody is looking forward to, the matchup voters say they don’t want. And yet, with nearly 300 days left until Election Day, Biden vs. Trump appears to be what the public is going to get this year, whether it likes it or not.
Whether you are ready to accept that reality depends on which stage of grief you find yourself in. Are you still in denial that these are our choices? Does this potential matchup anger you? Are you, like some major centrist donors in this country, dead set on bargaining your way out of this situation by searching for a third option? Have you vowed to walk away from politics thanks to a bout of depression over this choice?
Or are you at acceptance?
Haley to court Wall Street donors as Trump issues warning to her backers
Haley will be in New York City on Monday and Tuesday for multiple Wall Street fundraisers, according to two campaign sources.
Trump posted to Truth Social that anyone who donates to Haley will be "permanently barred from the MAGA camp." Trump's post did not specify whether he was referring to donations to her campaign or to the pro-Haley political action committee Stand For America.
Trump added that he doesn't want and "will not accept" Haley's supporters.
While Haley has touted her fundraising numbers ever since NBC News projected she finished second in the New Hampshire primary, some donors have grown bearish about Haley's chances of becoming the nominee. CNBC reported today that billionaire Reid Hoffman plans to pause donations to Haley's campaign after her loss in New Hampshire, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Haley returned fire after Trump threatened her backers, inviting people to donate to her campaign.
"Well in that case…donate here. Let’s Go!" she tweeted alongside a WinRed link where people can donate to her campaign.
Arizona GOP chair resigns after Kari Lake bribery allegation, says she threatened him
The chairman of the Arizona GOP resigned today after the release of an audiotape on which he offered Kari Lake, a top Trump ally and a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Arizona, lucrative job opportunities to take a two-year pause from politics.
“He’s got to resign. We can’t have someone who is corrupt and compromised running the Republican Party,” Lake told NBC News yesterday, referring to state chair Jeff DeWit.
DeWit posted a letter on X saying he was resigning “as Lake requested” — while also claiming her people had threatened to release another incriminating tape if he didn’t comply.
Haley says her campaign raised $1 million in last 24 hours
Haley, defiant coming off her NBC News-projected second-place finish in the New Hampshire primary, said tonight that her campaign raised $1 million in the last 24 hours.
Speaking at a packed rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, Haley said that the money came from “200,000 donors from all 50 states” and that 95% of the donations were “$200 or less.”
Haley was introduced onstage by Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., who remains her only congressional endorser. Trump picked up South Carolina endorsements over the past few days from Sen. Tim Scott and Rep. Nancy Mace.
Haley has alluded to her relative lack of endorsements from elected officials, saying last weekend in Epping, New Hampshire, "The elected political class has never liked me, and they will never endorse me, and I don’t want it, because I’m fighting for normalcy."
In her nearly 40-minute stump speech in North Charleston, Haley reaffirmed her commitment to stay in the race.
“The political elites in this state and around the country have said that we just need to let Donald Trump have this,” Haley said. “Listen, we’ve only had two states that have voted. We got 48 more that deserve to vote.”
She also continued to throw strong critiques at Trump.
“Donald Trump got out there and just threw a temper tantrum. He pitched a fit. He was insulting,” Haley said of the former president’s speech last night after his New Hampshire victory. “He was doing what he does, but I know that’s what he does when he’s insecure. I know that’s what he does when he is threatened, and he should feel threatened, without a doubt.”
Trump is handily leading Haley in recent South Carolina polling.
Biden said he expects a rematch with Trump as he secured the endorsement of the UAW. However, as Kelly O’Donnell reports, Biden faces significant challenges, including low approval ratings.
Haley received more than 4,000 write-in votes in New Hampshire Democratic primary
Haley, a Republican presidential candidate, received 4,695 write-in votes in New Hampshire's Democratic primary, according to the secretary of state’s office.
That comes after a review the “return of votes” that each voting location sent to the office after local election officials conducted their tallies. The totals are subject to change because of cities' or towns' corrections, according to the secretary of state.
Haley received just a few hundred Democratic primary votes less than Marianne Williamson, who was on the primary ballot. The write-ins do not affect Haley's tally in the Republican primary.