In the battle for the American Republican presidential candidacy, former incumbent Donald Trump also achieved a clear victory in the second primaries. His competitor Nikki Haley finished with a reasonable result in second place in the state of New Hampshire on Tuesday evening (local time) – but her hopes for a close race or even a victory were not fulfilled.
Haley was nevertheless combative and announced that she wanted to stay in the race. “The race is far from over, there are still dozens of states ahead of us,” she said in Concord on Tuesday evening (local time). “I am a fighter.” She congratulated Trump on his victory in New Hampshire, but added that a second term for her rival would only bring chaos to the country. The 52-year-old again asked her rival, who was 25 years older than her, to take part in a TV debate and questioned his sanity.
With the vote in New Hampshire, Trump strengthened his power within the party. A new edition of the election campaign between him and Democratic President Joe Biden is becoming increasingly likely.
Despite his success, Trump verbally attacked his rival during his victory speech in the New Hampshire city of Nashua and literally foamed with anger. “She’s doing a victory lap and we clearly beat her,” he said. The 77-year-old called his former ambassador to the United Nations an “imposter” and downplayed her achievements. “She won’t win,” he said. But his speech made it clear that he absolutely sees Haley as a danger.
According to predictions, Trump won in New Hampshire with more than 50 percent of the vote – continuing his success after the first primaries in the state of Iowa last week. Haley’s vote deficit in New Hampshire was estimated at more than ten percentage points.
Despite a good starting point for Haley, Trump scores
The Republican race, which originally had many more candidates in the field, is now just a duel between Trump and Haley. Since the weekend and the departure of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, there have been no other serious candidates. Nationally, Trump has an average of just under 68 percent in the polls, Haley only a good 12. Therefore, a victory for the 52-year-old in New Hampshire would have been particularly important to gain new momentum for her election campaign. . With her loss to Trump in New Hampshire, it is now difficult to imagine how Haley plans to turn things around. In the small state of New England, she would still have had the best chance of beating Trump.
Haley, who once served as a diplomat to represent Trump’s confrontational foreign policy on the international stage, is seen by the public as more politically moderate than her former boss and is also much more moderate in her rhetoric. In New Hampshire she hoped for success because of the less radical electorate in the conservative camp.
The state also has the special feature that voters who do not necessarily belong to the Republicans and are not registered as such (so-called independents) are also allowed to participate in the party’s primaries. The votes of this group of voters generally benefit the more moderate Republican candidates. Trump claimed in his speech that Haley only got her result with the “tremendous number” of votes from these people — describing them as Democrats who only voted to make him look as bad as possible.
Anyone who wants to become a presidential candidate in the US must first win in the parties’ internal primaries. The candidates are then officially chosen at the Republican and Democratic party conferences in the summer. The actual presidential elections are on November 5. While the first primaries in Iowa were voted on at party meetings, the so-called caucus meetings, people in New Hampshire decided on their favorite in a traditional manner at polling stations on Tuesday.
Haley hopes to play at home in South Carolina
Observers assumed Haley could retire if he lost in New Hampshire. But she made it clear in her speech after the vote: “The race is far from over, there are still dozens of states that are still ahead of us.” The next important milestone for her will be the elections at the end of February in her home state of South Carolina. Haley was governor there for six years. A defeat against Trump in the southern state would therefore be extremely embarrassing for Haley. But even there, Trump leads in the polls by a wide margin.
Haley has clearly fought his way forward in the party’s power struggle in recent months. When she announced her bid, she scored in the low single digits. But at this point it seems extremely unlikely that she could overtake Trump.
In the US, it is not excluded that Haley could aim for the office of US vice president at Trump’s side. However, in recent days she has verbally attacked her competitor more violently than ever. Trump recently indicated that he had a candidate in mind for office – but did not mention any names. There is speculation about the ultra-radical Elise Stefanik, who is extremely loyal to him and sits on behalf of the Republicans in the US House of Representatives and is campaigning heavily for Trump.
Four criminal proceedings are pending against the former president, including over his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. At the time, he lost to Democrat Biden, who now wants to defend his place in the White House despite skepticism in his own party. For many Democrats, the 81-year-old is too old, while Trump is only four years younger.
Biden is achieving symbolic success
Democrats also voted for their candidate for the presidential election in New Hampshire on Tuesday – and declared Biden the winner. His success, however, is more symbolic because the state’s delegate votes won’t be taken into account at the Democratic nominating convention in the summer. The background is an internal dispute between the Democrats about the conduct of the primaries.
US President Joe Biden has won the primaries for his party’s presidential nomination in New Hampshire, according to predictions. His success, however, is more symbolic because the delegate votes won in the state will not be considered at the Democratic nominating convention in the summer. Biden, who wants to run for a second term as president in November, was not even on the ballot in the primaries on Monday evening. Nevertheless, voters had the option to enter his name. Biden’s supporters campaigned for votes, mainly for image reasons, so as not to make the president appear blank.
The background is an internal dispute among Democrats: the party leadership actually wanted to move the start of the primaries to South Carolina – to a state with a more diverse electorate, to give the voices of black voters a bigger stage. The vote there won’t take place until February 3. New Hampshire did not want to lose its status as the first state for the primaries and pushed for an early voting date. Biden stuck to the party line and did not put himself on the ballot in New Hampshire. Only largely unknown candidates who had no chance were listed there. As an incumbent president, Biden has no serious competition in the Democratic primaries.
Biden interrupted his campaign appearance several times because of the Gaza war
However, during an appearance in the US state of Virginia, Biden was interrupted several times by troublemakers over his handling of the Gaza war. According to the accompanying press, on Tuesday afternoon (local time) in Manassas chants included “Genocide Joe” and “Stop the financing of genocide”. Biden’s supporters in the audience loudly protested “four more years” every time a disruptor interrupted. Biden had to interrupt his campaign speech several times. In recent weeks, the Democrat has been repeatedly interrupted by hecklers during speeches.
Also sparking outrage among some of his opponents was Biden’s early speech calling Democrat Terry McAuliffe the “real governor of Virginia.” The audience responded with occasional laughter. McAuliffe served as governor of the state from 2014 to 2018. He ran for the post again in 2021, but lost the election to Republican Glenn Youngkin. Biden was campaigning for his party colleague McAuliffe at the time.
His opponents then accused Biden of not accepting the Democratic election results. Biden even repeatedly warned during the election campaign that former President Donald Trump and his supporters were spreading lies about election fraud. Youngking shared a video of the scene on the X platform and wrote: “Mr. President, I’m here.”
Biden, his wife Jill and US Vice President Kamala Harris mainly campaigned for the right to abortion during the election campaign. (rbu/lak/sda/dpa)
Soource :Watson
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
