After Iowa, Nikki Haley proclaimed that her third-place finish had made it a two-person race between her and Donald Trump. After New Hampshire, it looks increasingly like a one-person race — and Haley is decidedly not that person.
Trump soundly defeated Haley on Tuesday night, with the race being called within minutes of the polls closing. The only drama was whether Trump would win solidly or win massively.
Haley offered a modified concession speech soon after the polls closed, congratulating Trump on his win but insisting the results put the pair in the heat of a competitive election. Speaking to an enthusiastic pack of supporters after the results were in, Haley vowed to stay in the race through South Carolina’s February 24 primary.
“South Carolina voters don’t want a coronation, they want an election,” she told supporters in New Hampshire. “And we are going to give them one, because we are just getting started.”
But the polls in South Carolina look even worse for Haley than they did in New Hampshire, and if she stays in the race, New Hampshire may prove to be the high point of the Haley campaign.
Loser: Nikki Haley
Haley had everything going for her in New Hampshire. She’d campaigned heavily there, all but eschewing Iowa in the hope that northeastern Republicans would prefer her more establishment brand of Republican politics. CNN reported Tuesday that Haley and her allies had spent about twice as much there as Trump’s team since the race began. The primary’s rules also allowed independents to participate. And with all that, she still lost.
She did her best to put a good face on the results, but Trump’s response is probably pretty close to correct: “Let’s not have somebody take a victory when she had a very bad night.”
After all, this was likely Haley’s best chance at a big victory. The polling looks even more bleak in South Carolina, the next primary that matters. (Nevada is next up on the calendar, but it’s a mess: The…
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