CONCORD, New Hampshire – Tuesday night’s results showed that Nikki Haley lost the nation’s first primary to Donald Trump, but her fans didn’t see it that way.
Many guests at Haley’s viewing party at the state capital were all smiles and expressed a sense of pride in her accomplishment.
“I think she showed how weak Donald Trump is. I think tonight was a loss for Donald Trump,” enthused voter John Shaw, 64, of Hampton. “This is the first round.”
Haley was quick to declare moral victory, taking the stage to speak to supporters moments after the media called the race for Trump and shortly after the final polls closed at 8 p.m.
The television broadcast in the main ballroom of the Grappone Conference Center was quickly cut off after Haley’s speech and the 52-year-old’s supporters had returned home long before the late results from rural areas of the Granite State will expand the margin of Trump, 77 years old. in two digits.
Nikki Haley took the stage in New Hampshire with a sense of optimism. AFP via Getty Images
“I think this was fantastic,” said David Tille, a longtime Republican strategist and former New England regional administrator of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“This [Haley’s performance] “She was very strong basically against an incumbent like Donald Trump… this is very much the beginning,” Tille said, comparing Haley to Pat Buchanan, who won 38% against incumbent President George HW Bush in the Republican primary. of 1992.
“I’m sure he’s probably scared after the New Hampshire results. Nobody expected you to be like this,” exulted Grace Puchaski, 19, a volunteer from North Carolina. “Now he has a two-man race.”
Election results live from New Hampshire
“No one is going to work harder than Nikki Haley. You’ve seen her work here. She’s now headed to South Carolina, her home state, where she ran twice. [for governor] and she won both races,” added Kim Rice, a Haley supporter and former speaker pro tempore of the New Hampshire House of Representatives.
“This is just the beginning,” agreed Melanie Sabelhaus, co-president of Women for Nikki. “The strategy is to go to her home state of South Carolina, where she was governor for two terms. They love Nikki.”
That love is not reflected in the Palmetto State primary polls, which show Trump leading Haley by an average of more than 30 percentage points, according to the latest aggregate from RealClearPolitics.
Donald Trump won another record victory in New Hampshire. REUTERS
Celebrating an 11-point loss would seem incongruent with the expectations set by Haley’s supporters early in the primary race.
The 52-year-old’s top surrogate, New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, predicted last month that Haley would achieve a “smash” before backtracking and tempering expectations.
Nikki Haley’s fans were jubilant despite her loss to Donald Trump. Aristide Economopoulos
The governor, who crisscrossed his home state in search of Haley, sometimes behind the wheel of his classic red Ford Mustang despite the winter weather, stopped briefly at the Concord watch group but declined to answer questions.
He later argued in [Haley’s] sails as he heads to his sweet home state of South Carolina.”
About 35 miles south, in Nashua, Trump loyalists gathered for their own celebration, having shunted Haley in what many experts saw as the state most favorable to her.
“Just a little note for Nikki. She’s not going to win. But if she did, these people would be investigating her within 15 minutes. And she could already tell you five reasons,” the 45th president smiled.
Chris Sununu endorsed Nikki Haley in December and urged Republicans to abandon Donald Trump. AP
Trump, no stranger to seeing victory in his own defeats, binge-posted about his “stunning victory” and Haley’s loss throughout Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning.
“Could someone please explain to Nikki Haley that she lost, and that she lost a lot? She also lost Iowa, BIG, last week. They were, as certain non-fake media say, ‘CRUSHING DEFEATS,’” she wrote on Truth Social at one point.
Any hostility Trump feels toward Haley is matched by his supporters’ feelings toward him.
“I’m a Never Trump supporter,” Sabelhaus said, before objecting to whether she could support him in a general election against President Biden.
“I can’t answer that right now,” he said, then added: “I liked his policies. [But] chaos and drama: you can’t have that for America.”
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