“This campaign is far from over,” said Nikki Haley, the euphoric loser in the New Hampshire Republican primary, won by Donald Trump by a less overwhelming margin than expected. The former president won the votes, Niki Haley more time. There was no knockout and the next appointment is South Carolina, a favorable state for which she was its governor between 2011 and 2017.
Trump was stung by the annoying need to prolong the electoral struggle with a rival whom he despised in his victory speech. “She has not won, she has lost,” he remarked. If he thought of achieving the nomination in the first round – and he did – he will have to sweat a little more for his goal.
New Hampshire confirmed that it is a non-Trumpist fiefdom due to its Democratic background - no Republican has won the state in the presidential elections since 2000 -, a low immigration rate and a desire for notoriety that tends to punish the favorite candidates. Donald Trump won, yes, with an advantage of around 10 percent, a margin much lower than the overwhelming 30 percent achieved in the Iowa caucus. The bad news for Niki Haley is that she has not even come close to victory .
Buying time is vital for Niki Haley, Trump's only rival in the race for the Republican nomination.
He needs, above all, to avoid the impression that there is no race and that Trump will inevitably be crowned at the Republican convention on July 15. He needs time to fix two of his main arguments: “Trump is the only Republican in the country that Joe Biden can beat” and “Americans do not want another Biden-trump duel.” Plausible but contradictory argument taking into account that no survey gives him a favorite in just one of the next states in contention...
The dissection of the vote attributes Nikki Haley's good result to the high number of unregistered voters on the Republican side who voted. Some of them openly admitted that they were Democrats eager to amplify the rejection of Trump. Not all states allow this license and yesterday's vote by registered Republicans was two to one in favor of the former president. The sooner he defeats his ambassador to the UN, the sooner Donald Trump can present himself as a Republican Caesar, the first to achieve the nomination in three consecutive elections. And the longer it takes to push Haley aside, the less solid and convincing his presidential aura will be. Next stop: South Carolina, February 24.
