Donald Trump has won the New Hampshire primary, likely cementing his place as the Republican presidential nominee.
Related: Long-shot Democratic candidates seek upset in New Hampshire primary
The win over Nikki Haley, who had briefly threatened to rein in the former president, suggests there will be a smooth path to the GOP nomination for Trump, who also won easily in the Iowa caucuses last week.
The Associated Press called the race just as the last remaining polling places in New Hampshire closed at 8pm ET, following a contentious primary that saw groups backing both candidates spending millions of dollars in increasingly vicious TV advertising.
Haley, who branded Trump a “chaos” candidate, promised a more palatable version of the rightwing fire and brimstone that has come to characterize the Republican party. She surged in the polls in New Hampshire in mid-December, but could not capitalize on that momentum on Tuesday night.
Despite the disappointing performance, Haley’s campaign insisted she would continue on to her home state of South Carolina, which will hold its primary next month.
“South Carolina elected Nikki as Governor twice, against the odds,” Haley’s campaign manager, Betsy Ankney, said in a campaign memo on Tuesday. “The people of South Carolina KNOW Nikki’s strong conservative record because they lived it.”
But polls show Trump maintaining a significant lead in South Carolina, so it is unclear how that primary might reshape the dynamics of the race. New Hampshire appeared to represent the last significant threat to what seems set to become a Trump coronation. In a purple state that voted for Joe Biden over Trump in 2020, Haley presented herself as a centrist Republican, while Trump continued to proffer rightwing populism in a series of rallies in recent days. Haley was Trump’s only serious contender in New Hampshire, after Ron DeSantis dropped out of the race on Sunday.
“Chaos follows him. You know I am right,” Haley said in her final campaign event on Monday, referring to Trump.
“And we cannot have a country in disarray and have a world on fire and go through four more years of chaos, because we won’t survive it.”
But Trump’s routine continues to appeal. Tina Lorenz, who said she had supported Donald Trump since 2016, was among those who voted for the former president on Tuesday.
“He is representing the American people. He is not out for himself. He’s not out for political gain. He’s not out for financial reasons. He doesn’t need money, he doesn’t need fame and fortune. He already has all of that,” Lorenz, 63, said.
“He is out there for the average person. And that’s what’s happening, we’ve become so polarized, that there’s nobody out there for just regular people.”
The result suggests Trump will become his party’s presidential candidate for the third election in a row, and will likely face Biden in November. Both men are viewed unfavorably by a majority of people in the US, meaning Americans will face a difficult and dissatisfying decision later this year.
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