Former President Donald Trump and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley are squaring off in New Hampshire’s “First in the Nation” Republican primary today. On the Democratic side, Rep. Dean Phillips hopes to pull off an upset against President Joe Biden, who isn’t on the ballot.
Summary
Former President Donald Trump and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley are squaring off in New Hampshire’s “First in the Nation” Republican primary today. On the Democratic side, Rep. Dean Phillips hopes to pull off an upset against President Joe Biden, who isn’t on the ballot.
- Trump is aiming for a commanding victory in New Hampshire after his thirty-point romp in the Iowa Caucuses. Haley hopes to prove wrong recent polls that show a widening Trump lead in the Granite State to keep her campaign alive until the next primary in her native South Carolina.
- Haley is Trump’s last remaining rival after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dropped out of the race on Sunday following his disappointing showing in the Iowa Caucuses and polls showing him with single-digit support in New Hampshire.
- Haley did start off Tuesday with one piece of good news: she won all six voters in Dixville Notch, the tiny hamlet that traditionally votes at midnight on primary day. The last Republican nominee to win Dixville Notch was Sen. John McCain in 2008.
- President Joe Biden should win the Democratic primary in a landslide, except for one problem: he’s not actually on the ballot. Biden’s absence creates an opening for his lone notable challenger, Rep. Dean Phillips, to score an upset.
- Biden refused to appear on the ballot after a feud between New Hampshire Democrats and the DNC over Biden’s desire to re-order the Democratic primary process to benefit his reelection bid. Even so, his supporters are mounting a write-in campaign to help Biden avoid an embarrassing result in the Granite State.
- The New York Times interviewed the “Dixville 6” about why they voted for Nikki Haley. “I wasn’t sure she would do it but I’m so excited,” voter Valerie Maxwell told the Times. “We did not tell each other who we were voting for, so I wasn’t sure. But I’m really excited she did it.”
- The Washington Post called Tuesday’s vote a “last stand” for the “anti-Trump constituency within the Republican party.” The Post pointed out that “after bullishly projecting an outright victory in recent weeks, Haley and Sununu shifted to lowering expectations after she finished third in last week’s Iowa caucuses.”
- CNN’s Stephen Collinson called Haley the “last obstacle” to “the general election clash that polls show most Americans don’t want.” Even so, she’s “under enormous pressure from primary calendar mathematics and from the fact that she needs to change the character of a party that has been dominated by Trump since 2016 to have a chance of winning the primary race.”
- National Review noted Haley’s decision to lean into her “underdog status” in her final appeal to New Hampshire voters. Haley attacked the Republican establishment for closing ranks behind Trump, who has virtually “the entire political elite all around him” just like other Republican establishment frontrunners from years past.
- Fox News observed Haley has been “sharpening her attacks” on Trump ahead of primary day. “The reality is, who lost the House for us? Who lost the Senate? Who lost the White House?” Haley asked. “Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump.”
- Breitbart covered Trump’s closing rally in New Hampshire with the so-called “big guns”: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, and Vivek Ramaswamy. The trio, who all dropped out of the race before a single vote was cast, have all endorsed Trump.
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© Dominic Moore, 2023
