Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley came in well behind former President Donald Trump in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday, but had an announcement for the political pundits who had predicted that she’d drop out of the race for the nomination after the loss.
“I want to congratulate Donald Trump on his victory tonight,” she said shortly after the major news outlets began declaring Trump the winner. “He earned it, and I want to acknowledge that.
“Now, you’ve all heard that chatter among the political class,” she continued, although a significant percentage of politically aware voters would likely consider Haley herself to be a card-carrying member of the political class. “They’re falling all over themselves, saying this race is over. Well, I have news for all of them.
“New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last in the nation,” she said, referring to the state’s early primary voting. Iowa assigned its delegates to the Republican National Convention last week, but did so with a caucus system run by the parties as opposed to by state and local governments.
“This race is far from over,” she said, essentially announcing that she had no immediate plans to leave the race for the Republican presidential nomination. “There are dozens of states left to go.”
“This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go.”
— Nikki Haley vows to stay in the presidential race after conceding the New Hampshire primary to Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/8iNPLhDvNB
— The Recount (@therecount) January 24, 2024
Trump the Tuesday primary with about 54.5 percent of the vote, compared to Haley’s 43.2 percent. About 2.2 percent went to other candidates, including several former candidates who dropped out of the race earlier, such as former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
About 70 percent of Trump’s voters, however, were registered Republicans, and only 27 percent were undeclared, according to CNN exit polls. (The other 3 percent registered on Tuesday, apparently making their party affiliation unavailable.)
Do you support Trump over Nikki Haley?
Haley’s voters were the mirror image of Trump’s according to those same polls, with 70 of her support coming from undeclared voters and only 27 percent from registered Republicans.
As NPR summed it up, “Haley won 6 in 10 independents Tuesday, but lost three-quarters of Republicans.” NPR was presumably using numbers other than CNN exit polls, which probably accounts for the difference between “70 percent” and “6 in 10,” but the point remains the same.
“It’s hard to see another state favorable enough to Haley to give her the opportunity to dislodge Trump as the likely nominee,” NPR suggested.
CNN’s exit polls show that 70% of Nikki Haley voters are NOT registered Republicans. pic.twitter.com/TCq5TH2CAL
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 24, 2024
That’s despite the fact that the next primary is Haley’s home state of South Carolina about a month from now, on Feb. 24. (South Carolinians, take note: The deadline for Republicans to register to vote in that primary is Thursday.)
Any hope Haley may be placing in Palmeto State voters would appear to be misplaced, as the RealClearPolitics average of polls in the state shows Trump beating out his former ambassador to the United Nations by more than 2-to-1, 52 points to 21.8 points.
Presumably, losing to Trump in her home state by such a crushing margin should convince Haley to drop out of the race, unless she’s waiting for fate to toss her a hail Mary in the form of a Supreme Court decision barring Trump from the ballot in some states or something similar.
But this is America in 2024; just about anything could happen between now and Nov. 5.
