'The General Election Begins Now': Trump Sees Record Breaking Success With Most Votes Ever Received In New Hampshire Primary

On Tuesday, New Hampshire voters took to the polls in the nation's first presidential primary to cast their ballots to determine who should be the Republican nominee. The race, between former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) and leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, was handily won by the 45th president with record breaking numbers.

Trump was declared the winner of the race a few minutes after the polls closed at 8 PM EST. When the dust had settled, Trump received 54.4 percent of the vote compared to Haley's 43.3 percent support. Trump even came out of the race with a record number of voters supporting his candidacy with the real estate mogul receiving 168,752 votes, a shocking 12 percent of the state's population. The previous record was held by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in 2016 when he won 152,193 votes against Hillary Clinton. Haley, who was flooded with independent and Democrat votes to bolster her results, received 134,255 votes.

Trump's impressive victory doesn't stop there, however. He is the first person in recent memory that has won the New Hampshire primary three times with his victories in 2016, 2020, and now 2024. The last person to achieve such a feat was Richard Nixon in 1960, 1968, and 1972.

While Haley was able to secure over 40 percent of the vote in the primary, she was significantly bolstered by Democrats and Independents in the race as shown by various exit polls. "President Trump got 74% among Republicans in New Hampshire yesterday while Biden voters gave Nikki Haley a false sense of being competitive," former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich explained. "This was her best state and she lost. The general election begins now."

Haley's defeat in the New Hampshire primary is a significant blow to her campaign and could potentially cause her to drop out of the race ahead of her home state, South Carolina's primary, on February 24. While she has remained defiant of calls for her to drop out of the race. On Tuesday evening, she told supporters that she will remain in the race. "New Hampshire is first in the nation, it is not the last in the nation. This race is far from over," she said. "There are dozens of states left to go."

According to the Five Thirty Eight polling average, Trump is dominating in Haley's home state with the support of 62.2 percent of South Carolinians, while former Gov. Haley has only 25 percent backing. As Haley continues to stay in the race, she prevents the Republican Party from fully unifying behind Donald Trump for the November election against President Biden. She will continue to spend millions in donor money to run against the leader of the Republican Party, likely weakening the GOP in its showdown against Democrats. Republican voters have proven that they want Trump and Haley should listen.
 

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