New Hampshire residents are voting on Tuesday in the state’s Republican primary, with just two high-profile candidates still in the running.
Former President Donald Trump seems to be the clear favorite in the Granite State following his historic win at the Iowa Caucus last week. Trump secured more than double the votes of any of his challengers.
Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the UN and former governor of South Carolina, is currently trailing Trump. She currently only has around 36% of New Hampshire Republicans’ support, according to the RealClearPolitics aggregate of polling data. Haley became Trump’s only serious challenger after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dropped out of the race on Sunday and endorsed the former president, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
A third candidate, Texas businessman and pastor Ryan Binkley, is also on the New Hampshire ballot. However, he has little name recognition, as he has never run for or held any political office in the past. He got 0.7% of the vote in the Iowa Caucus.
“I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee, and I will honor that pledge,” DeSantis said in his announcement over the weekend. “[Trump] has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear, a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents.”
New Hampshire has been Haley’s strongest polling state, and she has the endorsement of its Republican governor, Chris Sununu. Independents comprise 39% of the state’s electorate and can vote in either party’s primary, giving Haley’s campaign a glimmer of hope, The Washington Post reported.
“It’s really about the energy of that campaign. Trump has no energy — the guy can barely read a teleprompter right now. All the wind is behind … Nikki’s sails. So I just think the sky’s the limit,” Sununu said Monday, according to The Hill.
Trump won the Iowa Republican Caucus with 51% of the vote, ahead of DeSantis’ 21%, Haley’s 19%, and Vivek Ramaswamy’s 8%. Ramaswamy ended his campaign that evening and endorsed Trump.
The former president held a campaign event in New Hampshire Monday night with Ramaswamy and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who also threw his support behind Trump’s presidential bid.
“It’s time for us to unite our party so that we make sure that the only target we’re talking about is firing Joe Biden,” Scott said, per Fox News.
