Trump Closes To Republican Nomination After Big Hampshire Win
Donald Trump wins the New Hampshire Republican Presidential Primary – the contest where the state’s party selects its election candidate.
With almost 90% of the vote counted, the former President has a lead of 12 points on his last remaining rival Nikki Haley.
It’s another major victory for Trump – but Haley says, “this race is far from over”, adding: “I’m a fighter and I’m scrappy.
The result means trump is almost certain to be the republican nominee in November’s election – where he’s likely to face President Joe Biden.
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In his victory speech, Trump calls Haley an “imposter”, and brings on former rivals Vivek Ramaswamy and Tim Scott to endorse him.
The next big republican contest is in South Carolina – Haley’s home state – on 24 February.
Democrats also voted here Tuesday, but Biden did not appear on the ballot because the party is holding its first official contest in South Carolina.
New Hampshire held its primary first anyway, so the contest will not yield any delegates for the summer nominating convention.
Still, some Biden allies ran a campaign urging voters to write in his name, in hopes of generating a symbolic show of support amid low approval ratings.
Biden won the Democratic race, the AP projected late Tuesday.
The alternative is so scary, said Michelle O’Rourke, a Democrat in Bedford. I’m just so upset with all the Republicans. I wouldn’t want anything to do with any of them.
New Hampshire voters in the Republican primary split about evenly between people who were registered as Republicans and those registered as independent or undeclared, with a tiny share saying they were not registered to vote before Election Day, according to early exit polls.
Independents and undeclared registered voters supported Haley by about a 2-to-1 margin, while registered Republicans supported Trump by about 3 to 1.