New Hampshire, Jan 23 (IANS) Tensions run high in the camp of ex South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who is putting all her efforts and hopes on moderate conservatives and independents to vote for her in the first in the nation primary ballot for GOP nomination against the former president Donald Trump, whom all polls predict could be outright winner to seal the republican race for 2024.
New Hampshire’s long-celebrated, first-in-the-nation primary could have the last word on the 2024 Republican nomination battle, media reports said.
Voters are preparing to plough through heavy snow fills to trudge to polling booths as former President Donald Trump is poised for what could be a decisive win over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Notwithstanding the mounting criminal charges and fierce opposition from old-guard Republicans, Trump has built a formidable lead in a Granite State race that has boiled down to a one-on-one contest with the former United Nations ambassador. It’s a winner take it all in this state now.
Trump’s decisive vote in the Iowa caucus edging out rival Florida /Governor Ron DeSantis by a whopping 30-point and Haley by 32 points, has paved the way for what his voters believe his victory in New Hampshire by a resounding margin over Haley.
DeSantis dropped out of the presidential race after his humiliating drubbing in Iowa where he spent a fortune on Ad campaigns hoping to score a win over Trump. ‘
The last week has been tumultuous with three ex-challengers – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy – all falling by the wayside and endorsing Trump for the GOP’s ticket for the 2024 Presidential race to the White House.
“They’re all coming with us,” Trump told supporters Sunday night at the historic opera house in Rochester, N.H.
Haley: ” ‘ We don’t do coronations’. Despite polls showing Haley trailing Trump, she has still vowed to challenge the Republican frontrunner in New Hampshire. However, a bad Haley loss would increase the pressure on her to join DeSantis and withdraw from the 2024 race for the White House, handing the nomination to the former president, a USA TODAY columnist wrote.
Haley told FOX News Monday: “I know the political class wants to say that this race is over,” but voters may have different ideas. “We don’t do coronations,’ Haley said. “A democracy is about giving people options. We’re in this. We’re going to keep on going.”
Haley is aiming to build momentum for the February 24 primary in her home state of South Carolina – if she can sustain the Trump onslaught and wave that long, media reports said.
Trump is expected to garner over 54 per cent of the New Hampshire vote, according to an average of recent polls compiled by Real Clear Politics. Haley is averaging just under 37 per cent in those surveys, placing the former president firmly ahead of the former South Carolina governor in Tuesday’s pivotal primary.
This year’s New Hampshire primary may be remembered as the final chapter for Trump’s 2024 GOP challengers, after approximately a dozen Republican rivals dropped out in recent months., media reports commented.
DeSantis ceded the race to the frontrunner on Sunday, abruptly announcing by video that he was exiting the race and endorsing Trump.
The real estate mogul who became popular with his TV show The Apprentice, who lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, announced his latest bid unusually early, in November of 2022.
After Trump’s announcement, a series of Republicans challenged him, including Haley, DeSantis, Scott, Ramaswamy, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and North Dakota Governor. Doug Burgum.
All of them were betting on the court’s cases against Trump to reduce his popularity. Instead, Trump turned a martyr, and his supporters were literally blindsided by the serious charges or crimes and came out in large numbers to support him.
But over the past several months, political observers have watched as Trump’s challengers have dropped out one by one, either because of low poll numbers, failure to qualify for Republican debates or poor performances in Iowa, the USA TODAY columnist observed.
It’s a head-to-head faceoff: Trump vs Haley in New Hampshire. None can deny that Trump’s trials cast a shadow in New Hampshire, though his supporters are blindsided to the trials, but independents may think differently, and Nikki Haley may run an outside chance.
Trump is on the verge of winning the crucial primary despite the fact he was indicted four times last year and faces a cluster of criminal trials and civil lawsuits in 2024. His voters are least bothered and believe in Trump that it’s a democratic “witch hunt” against him.
It all boils down to the fact that Trump could be fighting accusations of trying to steal an election as he seeks another term in office. Trials scheduled in Washington and Georgia involve Trump’s efforts to overturn Biden’s victory in 2020 ahead of the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021. Trump asked the Georgia republican head to find 11,000 votes to make him win, allegedly inciting supporters such as proud boys, three percenters and oath keepers, militant outfits, to attack Capitol in DC.
Trumps legal woes provide a rather unusual common campaign venue: A courtroom in New York City, at a defamation trial brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, who has accused Trump of sexual assault. The judge in the Carroll case postponed the proceedings Monday because of an ill juror, but the Carroll trial will resume Wednesday, just hours after polls close in the Granite State.
It’s low key in New Hampshire as of Monday night due to the inclement weather. Voter turnout is a gamble, but Trump’s votes brave all odds to come out, but will independent voters do the same for Haey is the big question.
Despite Trump’s unprecedented criminal charges, 2024 has marked a more subdued New Hampshire primary, given the dearth of candidates. Two debates set for earlier this month were canceled, and Trump wasn’t going to participate anyway as he has skipped all of the GOP primary faceoffs, media reports said.
This year marks a departure for the democrats. The Democratic incumbent president won’t even appear on the ballot. The Democratic Party has pushed New Hampshire later on the primary and made South Carolina the nation’s first contest, bumping over the regular polling timeline.
As New Hampshire officials and national Democratic leaders clashed, Biden didn’t even register for the primary. Instead, his supporters are conducting a write-in effort on his behalf against little-known challengers Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn. and author Marianne Williamson., reports said.
As New Hampshire prepares to vote, the nation will watch whether Trump and Biden will simply sail to victory – or whether their opponents force an upset.
–IANS
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