About last night: Trump and Biden both enjoyed a good night on Tuesday, winning their respective primaries even though only one of them was technically on a primary ballot. As The Hill’s Jared Gans notes, the two men were among some of the winners of the New Hampshire primary, while Haley and Phillips were some of the losers.
It was an especially disappointing night for Haley, who’s projected to trail Trump by 11 points at the time of publication, according to Decision Desk HQ. Haley needed a win in the Granite State or a narrow loss to the former president to prove viable heading into South Carolina — and New Hampshire was seen as the best place for Haley to accomplish that given her strength with independent and undeclared voters.
As The Hill’s Niall Stanage writes this morning, the New Hampshire primary results only further cemented Trump’s hold among the GOP, though Haley asserts she’s not ready to drop out yet.
She said: “New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last in the nation. This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go,” she told a crowd of supporters as results were still being tabulated.
And while Republicans backing Trump have steadily been saying that their party needs to unite around his campaign to beat Biden in November, Trump’s speech was anything but a unity rally as he slammed Haley.
He said: “Let’s not have somebody take a victory when she had a very bad night. She had a very bad night,” Trump told his supporters. He also tried to taunt Haley, telling Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who dropped out and later endorsed Trump, “you must really hate her.”
“I just love you,” Scott replied back.
Meanwhile, Democrats were able to breathe a sigh of relief after Biden handily won the New Hampshire primary as a write-in candidate against several longshot contenders, including Phillips.
The path for Phillips was also extremely narrow to start, but the New Hampshire results essentially trounce any runway the Minnesota Democrat may have had to compete against the president in the upcoming primaries. Biden’s team, instead, has continued to direct its attention on the general election matchup, as The Hill’s Alex Gangitano reports this morning.
“While Joe Biden and Kamala Harris head into the general election with a winning message, the support of a united party and strong grassroots enthusiasm, Republicans are uniting behind an extreme and losing front-runner,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez told reporters on Wednesday.
Missed some of the key takeaways from last night? The Hill’s Caroline Vakil and Julia Mueller have you covered here.
