Republican candidates seeking to stop Donald Trump from being the party's White House nominee turned to New Hampshire on Tuesday having lost to the former president by historic margins in Iowa.
According to Reuters, more than half of Iowa voters stuck with Trump, propelling him toward what looks set to be a close and acrimonious rematch against Democratic President Joe Biden, 81, in the campaign for November's presidential election.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, 45, finished well behind Trump in second place in Iowa, pushing former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, 51, into third. Trump has dismissed debates with the other two, and on Tuesday, Haley said she would skip any future Republican debates unless Trump attends. Two such debates are due to take place in New Hampshire on Thursday and Sunday night.
Haley, a former South Carolina governor who has previously spoken of how voters in New Hampshire can "correct" the Iowa result, is polling second to Trump in the New England state, with DeSantis far behind.
"The next debate I do will either be with Donald Trump or with Joe Biden," she wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter and quoted by Reuters.
The Northeastern state is recognized for its relatively moderate, libertarian-leaning form of Republicanism. Furthermore, the primary competition in New Hampshire is deemed "semi-open," allowing voters unaffiliated with any party to participate, a dynamic that may benefit candidates perceived as centrists. In pursuit of this opportunity, Haley has undertaken an extensive campaign in New Hampshire, while DeSantis had heavily bet on Iowa.
Trump's striking comeback after the political chaos of Jan. 6 doesn't guarantee he will claim the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin this summer. But his unprecedented 51% finish, obliterating Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley by 30 percentage points, left his would-be challengers rushing to formulate a believable path to slow Trump's streak.
USA Today published an article stating that during the Iowa campaign, Trump had derided DeSantis and Haley, whereas now he's praising them. "I think they both actually did very well," he said and mentioned the number of calls he was getting from Republican officials newly eager to endorse him. "And we love them all," Trump told USA Today.
Hope For Haley?
According to USA Today, Iowa has a sorry record in signaling the Republican presidential nominee. In the last seven contested caucuses, five of the winners failed to win the nomination, much less the White House. In 2016, for one, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz edged Trump. That's why Haley told an audience last week that New Hampshire "corrects" Iowa - a comment she made to a New Hampshire audience, naturally, not an Iowa one.
"When you look at how we're doing in New Hampshire, in South Carolina and beyond, I can safely say, tonight, Iowa made this Republican primary a two-person race," she told her supporters, congratulating Trump but not mentioning DeSantis. She then tied Trump to Biden as aging leaders who are "consumed by the past."
"America deserves better," she went on. "Our campaign is the last, best hope of stopping the Trump-Biden nightmare."
Meanwhile, DeSantis continues to press ahead. His campaign currently risks funding problems after failing to break through in Iowa.
"Can you name major achievements under Haley's tenure?" he asked voters in Greenville, South Carolina. "She hasn't been able to do it."
Despite Trump's sweeping win, he still faces 91 felony charges in four indictments, two in federal court and two in state courts, in New York and Georgia.
He left Iowa for New York after claiming victory to attend the opening of a trial that will determine what additional damages he must pay writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her after she accused him of rape.
Last spring, another jury awarded her about $5 million for sexual assault.
