Washington: With around 90 per cent of votes counted, former US president Donald Trump has established a narrow lead of just 10 points over his rival, former governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, beating a retreat from poll predictions of a landslide win with 32 points.
The counting is not over, and Haley still has a slight chance of overtaking Trump, media reports said, adding Trump, however, was confident of locking down New Hampshire.
As the lead was just narrow, Haley said she “refuses to quit”, insisting she can still beat Trump and will head into home turf South Carolina next week and has rallies planned in California, New York and Florida.
New Hampshire has a significant number of independent voters as compared to Iowa and also moderate republicans supporting her. Super Tuesday states also have similar demographics.
The former South Carolina governor has fundraisers planned in California, New York and Florida and is planning a rally in her home state on Wednesday, the NBC reported. .
Haley had come too far to let it all go in one night, even as the pundits, the media and now another state’s voters were nudging her toward the exits just hours earlier.
On Tuesday night, fresh from a loss that followed a third-place finish in Iowa, Haley said she had too much fight in her to throw in the towel, despite Trump’s attempts to turn his sights on a general election contest.
On the night of her second-place finish in New Hampshire, Haley, the former UN ambassador, pledged to plough forward to her home state, insisting she still had a path, the NBC reported.
“I have news for all of them. New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last,” Haley said to cheers.
“This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go, and the next one is my sweet state of South Carolina.
“With Donald Trump, Republicans have lost almost every competitive election. We lost the Senate. We lost the House. We lost the White House. We lost in 2018. We lost in 2020, and we lost in 2022,” Haley said.
“The worst-kept secret in politics is how badly the Democrats want to run against Donald Trump. They know Trump is the only Republican in the country who Joe Biden can defeat,” she added.
As of Tuesday night, she had fundraising trips planned for New York, California and Florida.
Haley still had a rally in Charleston planned for Wednesday and had already started spending money on a previously announced $4 million ad buy there.
“Nikki Haley shocked the world before. She did it numerous times in South Carolina politics,” said Alex Stroman, the executive director of the South Carolina Republican Party.
South Carolina has open primaries, meaning Democrats can also vote in the election.
Trump had railed against Haley in the run-up to New Hampshire, accusing her of drawing Democratic support in a GOP primary.
Haley’s supporters, however, have stuck with her, saying she has demonstrated she could beat the odds in a crowded race against others who were polling higher and funded better.
“Haley’s catch phrase is ‘slow and steady wins the race’. We are going to keep chipping away, adding voters, and adding donors each day in each primary,” said Bill Strong, a donor and member of Haley’s campaign executive committee.
–IANS