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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly e-newsletter.
Donald Trump prolonged his commanding lead within the race for the Republican presidential nomination by profitable the New Hampshire major on Tuesday, however didn’t knock rival Nikki Haley out of the White Home contest.
Trump had 55 per cent of the votes counted at 11pm Jap Customary Time, whereas Haley held 43.5 per cent. With votes nonetheless to be counted, the precise margin of his victory will solely be recognized later within the night.
Trump’s New Hampshire win follows his landslide victory final week in Iowa, the place the previous president gained greater than 50 per cent of the vote. He’s the primary non-incumbent within the trendy period to win each Republican presidential contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.
The victories within the two essential early states give Trump probably unstoppable momentum because the Republican nominating marketing campaign strikes to the South, setting him on target for a rematch within the 2024 common election with Democratic incumbent Joe Biden.
“We had one hell of an evening tonight,” Trump informed supporters at a post-election celebration in Nashua, New Hampshire, on Tuesday night time, as he lashed out at Haley for staying within the race and stated she would by no means win the Republican celebration’s nomination for the White Home.
“Just a bit be aware to Nikki: she’s not going to win,” Trump added.
Regardless of Trump’s back-to-back victories, Haley was defiant at her personal election night time celebration in Harmony, New Hampshire, insisting the race was “not over” and touting the subsequent main contest in South Carolina, the place she served two phrases as governor — although she nonetheless trails the previous president by double digits in latest polls there.
“New Hampshire is first within the nation, it isn’t final within the nation,” Haley informed supporters. “This race is way from over. There are dozens of states left to go, and the subsequent one is my candy state of South Carolina.”
The New Hampshire major was seen as an important take a look at for Haley, who completed in a disappointing third place behind Florida governor Ron DeSantis in Iowa. DeSantis suspended his marketing campaign and endorsed Trump on the weekend, saying it was “clear” {that a} “majority of Republican major voters” needed to provide the previous president one other probability.
Haley’s vow to maintain combating turns the give attention to to her marketing campaign funds and whether or not donors might be prepared to fund a protracted major course of that might stretch for months.
After the South Carolina Republican major on February 24, the race will flip to Tremendous Tuesday on March 5, when greater than a dozen states will maintain elections and award delegates.
Trump has secured endorsements from nearly all main Republican candidates who’ve withdrawn from the race, together with the high-profile backing of Tim Scott, a senator from Haley’s dwelling state of South Carolina. Different main Republicans have begun to line up behind him in latest days, together with senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.
Biden issued an announcement on Tuesday night time saying it was “now clear that Donald Trump would be the Republican nominee”.
“My message to the nation is the stakes couldn’t be greater,” Biden added, noting that American “democracy,” “private freedoms,” and the US financial system had been “all are at stake”.
Biden himself gained an unofficial Democratic major in New Hampshire, the Related Press projected on Tuesday night time, because of a write-in marketing campaign unexpectedly organised by his supporters after the Democratic Nationwide Committee moved to alter the celebration’s major calendar and the president didn’t submit his title for the New Hampshire poll.
Further reporting by Oliver Roeder in New York
