Former President Donald Trump touted his victory Wednesday afternoon in the state of New Hampshire, where he won the Republican presidential primary and may have sealed the fate of his only remaining opponent: former UN Ambassador and South Carolins Gov. Nikki Haley.
Trump won contested races in Iowa last week and New Hampshire this week, making him the first non-incumbent presidential candidate to do so in modern history. In another record, Trump’s win was fueled in part by record voter turnout, with 320,000 New Hampshire voters heading to the polls.
Trump received about 175,000 of those votes, the most ever.
“On track to break the all time record for raw votes in New Hampshire Primary History, for either Party, previously held by Bernie Sanders, in the 2016 Primary,” Trump said early Wednesday morning before he beat the record. “Make America Great Again!”
Notably, the governors of both states endorsed his rivals, but it was not enough.
“I have now beaten the once very popular sitting Governor of Iowa, and the once fairly popular sitting Governor of New Hampshire – and now BOTH are extremely unpopular within their States, and within the Republican Party!” Trump said in a statement.
Both Iowa and New Hampshire combined only offer 62 total delegates, and those are awarded proportionately based on the votes candidates received. That means Trump has only a fraction of the 1,215 delegates needed to win the GOP nomination, but for now he has almost all of the momentum.
The next state on the horizon is key: Haley’s home state of South Carolina. Haley will undoubtedly have some advantage campaigning in her home state where she was once governor.
But the polling is grim for Haley. The RealClearPolitics polling average has Trump up by about 30 points in South Carolina, a vote scheduled for Feb. 24.
On top of that, Trump has racked up several endorsements in South Carolina including U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, the Republican Haley herself appointed to the Senate in 2012.
“I just love you,” Scott said Tuesday night at Trump’s victory rally.
Trump made mention of Haley’s appointment of Scott in a dig at Haley.
“Did you ever think…she actually appointed you, Tim?” Trump said, before later adding, “you must really hate her.”
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who pledged to hold Trump accountable after the Jan. 6 riots has also now endorsed him in a blow to Haley’s campaign.
“I don’t see eye to eye perfectly with any candidate,” Mace wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, earlier this week.
She added that “the time has come to unite behind our nominee.”
After South Carolina in February is Super Tuesday in March, where Trump has a sizeable lead in the polls and Haley does not have nearly the chance of winning as she did in New Hampshire, where the gap was about 11%.
Haley, though, committed to continue her campaign after her New Hampshire loss.
“The political class wanted us to believe that this race was over before it even began,” she told her supporters. “You proved them wrong, and I am so grateful.”
