President Joe Biden fired the starting gun in the general election race on Tuesday evening, shortly after former President Donald Trump won two of two in the first nominated states.
Although Nikki Haley vowed to continue her campaign, Biden’s comments were simply the latest admission that Trump had all but secured the Republican nomination with a double-digit victory in New Hampshire.
“It is now clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee,” Biden said.
‘And my message to the country is that the stakes could not be higher. Our democracy. Our personal freedoms – from the right to choose to the right to vote… are all at stake.”
His words reflect the growing sense that the Republican race has become a coronation.
President Joe Biden fired the starting gun in the general election race on Tuesday evening, shortly after former President Donald Trump won two of two in the first nominated states.
No candidate who won the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primaries has failed to become their party’s nominee.
So even though Trump won Tuesday by less than the landslide predicted by the polls, his party in a Nashua hotel took on the aura of a party at the end of a long campaign.
“If you win Iowa and you win New Hampshire…” no one has ever lost, Trump said.
“That’s never happened before, so we won’t be the first I can tell you. We’re way above everyone else.’
Trump drew blood before the first votes were cast. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis quit on Sunday.
Pollsters say they see little hope that Haley will win the next few states. She faces difficult conversations with donors about whether to continue paying salaries until the next major game in South Carolina in a month.
And the final rallies of Trump’s New Hampshire appearance were intended to promote a sense of inevitability as he brought onto the stage opponents he had already forced out of the race.
Senators Tim Scott and Vivek Ramaswamy rejoined him on Tuesday evening as results showed he won by 11 points.
“This election is over,” Scott said with a roar of approval.
Donald Trump signaled Tuesday night that he was turning his attention to the general election, along with President Joe Biden, after clinching victory in New Hampshire
Former South Carolinian Nikki Haley fared better than the 20-point defeat than some New Hampshire polls predicted, but she faces a nearly impossible path to the nomination
“It is time for the Republican Party to unite around our candidate and the United States’ next, Donald Trump.
“Let’s get that party started tonight.”
By winning big in the first two states, Trump has shown that he can build a broad coalition, winning against the conservative evangelical voters of Iowa and the more moderate Republican electorate of New Hampshire.
“Donald Trump won Iowa by a historic margin. He has now won in New Hampshire,” said Corey Lewandowksi, a former Trump campaign manager who is from New Hampshire.
“So I don’t understand how Nikki Haley stays in the race and says she’s doing it for the good of the party. it’s time to rally behind the clear frontrunner.”
Even President Joe Biden said the race was effectively over and the general election had begun.
“It is now clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee,” he said. ‘And my message to the country is that the stakes could not be higher. Our democracy. Our personal freedoms – from the right to choose to the right to vote… are all at stake.”
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Polling data was broadcast on large screens as Trump supporters waited for the former president
With each victory, he gains more support and a growing sense of inevitability, much like Republican donor Dan Eberhart, who was a major donor to Ron DeSantis until he quit on Sunday.
“Trump has united the Republican Party and is better than Biden on almost every issue,” he told DailyMail.com after announcing his support for Trump. “What other problem is there?”
Republican Rep. Brandon Williams of New York also endorsed Trump after New Hampshire’s results were announced.
“President Trump will be the Republican nominee for president,” he said.
He has a district won by Biden in 2020, and should have been the kind of lawmaker attacked by Haley’s argument that she is more electable than her rival.
Still, Haley vowed to keep campaigning. And her supporters said the result in New Hampshire was enough to move forward.
‘This race is far from over. There are still dozens of states to go,” she told Haley supporters, as audience members responded with chants of, “It’s not over yet!”
Still, it’s hard to see a path that will lead her to winning enough delegates to slow Trump’s rise.
Hundreds of supporters gathered at the Nashua Sheraton hotel to celebrate the victory
The race next heads to Nevada, where a complicated dispute means her name isn’t even registered for the caucuses that will award the state’s delegates.
“I’m happy to announce that we just won Nevada,” Trump said with a smile on Tuesday evening.
Then it’s off to her home state of South Carolina in about a month. Trump has gained support and currently has a 30-point lead over Haley, according to a Real Clear Politics moving average, even though she was the state’s governor.
New Hampshire, with its high share of college-educated voters, was seen as its best chance to slow Trump’s rise.
James Johnson, co-founder of polling firm JL Partners, said Haley had done better than forecast, but that was due to support from Democrats and independents.
“This is a Republican race and Haley has allowed himself to become the Democratic nominee in it,” he said.
“Such a limited pattern of support means she cannot win the nomination.”