Polls have started to close in New Hampshire in what could be the last competitive nominating contest of the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
For former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, New Hampshire is her best opportunity to undermine former President Donald Trump, who has dominated the process with his almost incumbentlike stature within the Republican Party.
Trump averages a 19 percentage point advantage over Haley in New Hampshire, 56% to 36.5%. Yet as once-Trump critics endorse the former president, including one-time 2024 candidates Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND), Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), and biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Haley has promised to continue her campaign, at least until her home state of South Carolina.
The former Palmetto State governor has underscored an increase in her fundraising after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) suspended his bid last weekend, new TV advertisement investments, and an event scheduled for Wednesday in North Charleston, South Carolina.
“We wanted to be strong in Iowa,” Haley told reporters Tuesday outside a polling location in Hampton. “We want to be stronger than that in New Hampshire. We’re going to be even stronger than that in South Carolina. We’re running [through] the tape.”
“I don’t do what he tells me to do. I’ve never done what he tells me to do,” she said of pressure from Trump to drop out. “I’m running against Donald Trump, and I’m not going to talk about an obituary just because y’all think we have to talk about it.”
Trump similarly projected confidence and downplayed Haley’s importance to the race during his own polling station stop 45 minutes inland in Londonderry with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
“We’re going to know at about 7:30 p.m., I think,” he told NBC. “It’s going to be big. … We’re going to have a great victory. It’s going to be a victory for the country, not for me, because we have to bring our country together.”
During an impromptu question and answer session with a separate group of reporters, Trump added, “I don’t care if she stays in. Let her do whatever she wants. It doesn’t matter.”
Trump and Haley have diverged in their closing arguments in person and through ads. The former president has criticized his ex-ambassador specifically for her immigration, entitlement reform, and tax policies after trying to “other” her regarding her Indian heritage, while she has been more personal, raising concerns about his mental acuity. She has, however, not scrutinized his character and has pledged to support him if he becomes the Republican nominee.
“I think that he’s fit, but what I’m saying is, do we really want two 80-year-olds to be our options when we’re talking about the president?” Haley told CNN on Tuesday. “Because I don’t ever want to see a President Kamala Harris. That should send a chill up everyone’s spine.”
Trump’s aides have indicated they would consider a 7-point margin of victory a win, premised on New Hampshire’s more centrist electorate and state laws that permit undeclared voters to take part in the election. Meanwhile, Haley — who appeals to those independents, particularly in the Granite State’s southern population centers that are approximate Boston-area suburbs — has tried to manage expectations, repeating the word “strong” but also emphasizing low turnout in Iowa.
“Roughly 50 percent of Republican primary voters want an alternative to Donald Trump,” Haley campaign manager Betsy Ankney wrote in a memo Tuesday. “Seventy-five percent of the country wants an option other than Donald Trump and Joe Biden.”
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“We’ve heard multiple members of the press say New Hampshire is ‘the best it’s going to get’ for
Nikki due to independents and unaffiliated voters being able to vote in the Republican primary,” she said. “The reality is that the path through Super Tuesday includes more states than not that have this dynamic.”
The last polls close at 8 p.m. Haley earned all six votes from Dixville Notch, the only New Hampshire community that cast ballots at midnight.
