Trump wins 2024 New Hampshire primary as Haley vows to continue fight

Trump celebrated his win late Tuesday in a victory speech in Nashua while railing against Haley for celebrating her second-place finish. 

Flanked by the likes of former White House hopefuls Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Vivek Ramaswamy, along with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Trump criticized Haley without naming her, saying she had a "very bad night."

"She's doing a speech like she won. She didn't win, she lost," Trump said. 

Trump briefly ceded the microphone to Ramaswamy, who said Haley's continued presence in the race is representative of the "ugly underbelly of American politics."

"This man will win it in a landslide," Ramaswamy said. 

President Biden's reelection campaign wasted no time in pivoting toward the general election, saying in a statement that Trump had "locked up the GOP nomination" with his victory. The New Hampshire results, the campaign said, showed that the "election denying, anti-freedom MAGA movement has completed its takeover of the Republican Party."

The campaign contrasted Mr. Biden's agenda with Trump's, saying that the former president would "undermine American democracy" and ban abortion nationwide.

"Joe Biden sees things differently," the campaign said. "He's fighting to grow our economy for the middle-class, strengthen our democracy, and protect the rights of every single American."

With the projected results out of New Hampshire, the Biden campaign said it's "increasingly clear" that Trump will be on the ballot in November, where it says he'll face "the only person to have ever beaten him at the ballot box: Joe Biden."

Speaker Mike Johnson congratulated Trump for his projected win in New Hampshire Tuesday night, calling it a "decisive victory" while making clear that House Republican leadership supports his reelection. 

"Republican voters in Iowa and New Hampshire have strongly backed him at the polls," Johnson wrote on X. "It's now past time for the Republican Party to unite around President Trump so we can focus on ending the disastrous Biden presidency and growing our majority in Congress."

Though Trump has the support of House leadership and most of the lower chamber's rank-and -file, Senate Republicans aren't so united, with just over half of GOP senators currently endorsing his return to the White House. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Senate Minority Whip John Thune of South Dakota haven't endorsed the former president. 

But Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. 3 Republican, did endorse Trump earlier this month. Nearly 30 GOP senators have done the same, according to CBS News' tally.

Delivering remarks from Concord after Trump was projected the winner of the GOP primary, Haley extended congratulations to the former president and told a crowd of supporters that "he earned it."

Haley indicated that she has no plans to drop out of the race for the GOP presidential nomination and noted that though the New Hampshire primary is the first in the nation, it is not the last.

"This race is far from over," she said. "There are dozens of states left to go and the next one is my sweet state of South Carolina."

Haley told the room of her supporters that so far this election cycle, the field of Republican presidential hopefuls has shrunk from 14 to just two, and support for her campaign continues to grow.

"I'm a fighter, and I'm scrappy, and now we're the last ones standing next to Donald Trump," she said.

Haley highlighted Trump's recent slip-up during a campaign event, in which he confused her with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and renewed her call for the former president to debate her one-on-one. Trump has declined to participate in any of the Republican primary debates.

"I voted for Trump twice. I was proud to serve America in his Cabinet. I agree with many of his policies," she said. "I decided to run because I'm worried about the future of our country and because it's time to put the negativity and chaos behind us."

Contrasting herself with Mr. Biden and Trump, who are 81 years old and 77 years old, respectively, Haley predicted that "the first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to be the party that wins this election."

"Our fight is not over because we have a country to save. In the next two months, millions of voters in more than 20 states will have their say. We should honor them and allow them to vote," she said.

Rep. Dean Phillips, a Democrat from Minnesota, vowed to continue his longshot presidential campaign challenging President Biden, delivering a high-energy speech following his loss to the president in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday.

Mr. Biden did not appear on the New Hampshire primary ballot as a result of a dispute between the state and the national Democratic Party. But his campaign encouraged supporters to write in his name anyway, and he won by an overwhelming margin.

Addressing supporters Tuesday evening in New Hampshire, Phillips nonetheless said he thinks he is the only person that can stand in the way of Trump's reelection.

"The polls are saying he [Biden] cannot win, his approval numbers are saying he can't win," Phillips said. "We're going to go to South Carolina, to Michigan, and 47 other states." 

Read more from CBS Minnesota here.

New Hampshire was friendlier territory for Haley than Iowa, and she carved out a lane among the state's more moderate voters in the open-primary state. But her advantages were not enough to propel her to victory against Trump, and the conditions in the next major contest appear even less favorable for Haley.

Haley is banking on a strong performance in her home state of South Carolina next month. But Trump has already started to win the support of a number of state officials, despite Haley having served as governor from 2011 to 2017. The electorate in South Carolina is also far more conservative than New Hampshire, further complicating her path to the nomination. 

Still, Haley appears unfettered. She said that South Carolina voters "don't want a coronation — they want an election." Her campaign said in a memo before polls closed that states voting on Super Tuesday offer more favorable contests, with many allowing independents to participate in the GOP primary.

While Trump's final margin of victory in New Hampshire is still unclear, Haley is already facing pressure from fellow Republicans to drop her bid and unite the party behind Trump. 

Trump will win the New Hampshire Republican primary, CBS News projects.

President Biden will also win the Democratic primary, waging a successful write-in campaign in the contest that will award no delegates, CBS News projects.

With all polls now officially closed across New Hampshire, CBS News rates the GOP primary as lean Trump:

Former GOP Rep. George Santos of New York, who was expelled from the House in December, was spotted at the primary night party hosted by the Trump campaign at a hotel in Nashua.

Santos was the sixth House member in history and first in more than two decades to be removed from office by a vote of the lower chamber.

The New Hampshire secretary of state's office reported that there are no voting issues so far in the state. Roughly a dozen towns have had to ask for additional Republican ballots, and turnout is "strong," as Secretary of State David Scanlan predicted last week that it would be.

Scanlan had estimated 322,000 New Hampshire Republicans could participate in the primary.

New Hampshire voters headed to the polls Tuesday for the first primary of 2024. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley was looking to make up a double-digit polling gap between her and former President Donald Trump, the current front-runner, who easily prevailed in the Iowa caucuses. 

CBS Boston has a town-by-town look of the New Hampshire primary results as they come in. Unlike other states, New Hampshire's elections are administered on the township level, not the county level. 

The bulk of results will begin coming in after the last polls close at 8 p.m.

Read more on CBS Boston.

Polling stations in some jurisdictions in New Hampshire are now closed, with the rest remaining open until 8 p.m. ET. Voters in line when the polls close can still vote.

At a voting precinct at an elementary school in Salem, New Hampshire, some voters said they were ready to see Trump return to the White House, citing his record and business experience, while others appeared ready for a new direction.

One undeclared voter, John, told CBS News that it's Trump's "seriousness and his passion for leading" that earned his support, calling the former president a "natural born leader" who people tend to follow.

But other voters, like Richard Carr, said they were ready for a change. 

"She's not Trump and she's younger," Carr said of Haley. 

Another voter, Christina Collins, said "it's time to get a fresh face in there."

"Somebody younger, somebody who has different views — and really just wants what's best for everybody," she said. 

President Biden is dispatching two of his senior-most West Wing aides to help oversee his reelection campaign in Delaware, multiple people familiar with the plans told CBS News.

Mike Donilon, the president's longtime speechwriter, and Jennifer O'Malley Dillon, who ran Mr. Biden's 2020 campaign, will leave their senior positions at the White House and turn their attention full time to the reelection effort. 

Both have worked in the White House since Mr. Biden took office in January 2021, with O'Malley Dillon serving as deputy chief of staff and Donilon as senior adviser to the president.

Read more from Ed O'Keefe and Fin Gómez here.

As Trump's legal issues play out, New Hampshire Republican primary voters are expressing relatively more concern than Iowa caucusgoers did about Trump's fitness for presidency should he be convicted of a crime.

According to early exit polls, New Hampshire's Republican voters are currently split on whether Trump would be fit for the presidency if he were convicted, with 50% saying he would still be fit for office, and 47% saying he would not.

More Iowa Republican voters dismissed Trump's legal woes: 65% of caucusgoers said if Trump were to be convicted of a crime, he would still be fit for the presidency, according to entrance polls.

In New Hampshire, most Trump voters don't think a conviction would disqualify him. Among Trump supporters, 86% said he would still be fit to serve as president if convicted, and 11% said he would not be. Those numbers are flipped for Haley voters. Among Haley voters, only 12% say Trump would be fit to be president if convicted of a crime; 85% of Haley voters say no. 

Republican primary voters in New Hampshire are evenly split on whether Mr. Biden legitimately won the election — 49% said yes, and 49% said no. 

Exit poll results are subject to change as more voters head to the polls before they close.

By Jennifer De Pinto and Fred Backus

A memo from a pro-Haley super PAC is signaling the group is ready for an aggressive push heading into Super Tuesday. 

"We are well funded, have raised millions in the last few days, and will do what's necessary to support her," SFA Fund, Inc., said in the memo. 

The memo noted that 99% of the country has yet to vote, and insisted the group is ready for South Carolina, which has an open primary. Haley has been working hard to garner support in the state she once governed. 

"And to those talking about the sky falling if Nikki stays in the race — Nikki is a two-term governor, the first female governor of South Carolina, she's been ambassador to the U.N., and came out of the Trump administration better than going in — a feat many didn't achieve," the memo says. "Jeb Bush wasn't saved by dropping out before Florida, the sky didn't fall when Marco [Rubio] lost Florida." 

Asked what the feeling is on the ground, New Hampshire Republican Chairman Chris Ager said the feeling is it's "Trump vs. Biden in Nov.," predicting Haley's defeat and looking ahead to the general election in November.

Ager, who spent the day visiting poll sites. He remained neutral in the GOP primary and did not endorse a candidate in the race.

Another former state GOP chairman, Stephen Stepanek, runs the Trump campaign in New Hampshire.

Early exit polling shows New Hampshire Republican voters are unhappy and dissatisfied with the state of the country. 

And among both Trump and Haley supporters, defeating President Biden isn't the most important candidate quality to them. 

Among New Hampshire Republican primary voters, only 18% are satisfied and 3% are enthusiastic with how they feel about the country. Conversely, 45% are dissatisfied and 32% consider themselves angry. 

The economy is the top issue for these GOP primary voters, and 69% of them say the economy is "not good."

Immigration is the second-most important issue to New Hampshire Republican primary voters, particularly to Trump voters. 

Each candidate's supporters prioritized different qualities. Trump voters prioritized having a candidate who fights for people like them. Most important to Haley voters was having a candidate with the right temperament. 

Only 15% of Trump voters and 11% of Haley voters said the most important candidate quality is the ability to defeat Mr. Biden in November. 

By Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Kathryn Watson

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu predicted high statewide turnout for the primary today, he told CBS News' Robert Costa.

And Costa, tweeting from Bedford, New Hampshire, noted what appeared to be strong turnout there. 

Temperatures reached the high 30s today in the state — far warmer that the below-zero temperatures in Iowa suffered for last week's caucuses. 

The New Hampshire secretary of state's office said that there was a surge of voters early this morning. Since then, turnout has lightened a bit across the state, but it remains too early to predict turnout. 

There have been no issues reported regarding voting machine operations.

Former GOP presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott indicated he'd serve as Trump's running mate if he's asked. 

CBS News' Robert Costa spoke with Scott this afternoon as the South Carolina senator made his rounds with the media in Manchester.

Asked whether he'd be willing to be on the ticket with Trump, Scott replied, "I'm willing to help the ticket." 

The senator also told Costa he expects tonight's primary "will only create more momentum for South Carolina" and that he believes "this race is already over, but we will solidify that by Feb. 24." 

In South Carolina, Scott predicted a Trump landslide, with a margin of "20+ points," given the "infectious kind of enthusiasm" voters have for the former president, but he was careful not to directly criticize Haley, a fellow South Carolinian. 

"Well, she's tenacious. I know she's coming home to South Carolina. I would love for her to join the Trump team and go ahead and endorse now and not wait any time. Every day we're not talking about Joe Biden and the abysmal performance he's brought to our country is a day wasted. So I'm looking forward to getting to the contrast between Joe Biden and Donald Trump," Scott said.

By Alisa Wiersema

Speaking to reporters near a polling place in Londonderry, New Hampshire, Trump said he tries to forgive people after they've run against him in the primaries. 

"I try to, I do," he said. "I'm a very forgiving person, OK, I try." 

In the past couple of weeks, opponents Vivek Ramaswamy, Tim Scott and Doug Burgum have dropped out of the GOP nomination race. They have all endorsed Trump. The former president also predicted that other Republicans who abandoned him in recent years will rally around him again. 

"They're going to all vote for me again," Trump said of Republicans. "Everybody. I'm not sure we need too many. I'm not sure. I think Biden is the worst president in the history of this country. But we're going to all come back, they're all coming back. And I think you see that here. I think you see that."

The former president said he thinks Haley will probably suffer a "big loss" in New Hampshire.

The last time President Biden ran in the New Hampshire primary he didn't stick around to see the results. For the state's 2024 primary, his name isn't even on the ballot.

Back in 2020 he was a supposed frontrunner struggling to look like one, fresh off a sluggish performance in the 2020 Iowa caucuses. He asked New Hampshire voters to help him flip the narrative and deliver him a comeback. He snarked back at critics, belittled a younger challenger and called one woman "a lying, dog-faced pony soldier" at a campaign event. 

Then he skipped his own campaign party, headed to South Carolina, and finished a distant fifth in New Hampshire's primary, faring worse than the former mayor of a midsized Midwestern city. 

Almost four years later, Mr. Biden and national Democrats have helped create a situation where the president's name won't even appear on New Hampshire 2024 primary ballot. He is instead limited to only being a write-in option while a younger congressman from his own party tries to replace him as the presumptive Democratic nominee, citing fears the incumbent could lose to Trump in the general election. 

Read more here about what Mr. Biden's absence from the ballot means for the election.

Most polling sites in New Hampshire close at 7 p.m. ET, but some are open until 8 p.m. ET. CBS News will not characterize the race until all polls are closed at 8 p.m.

In guidance sent to local elections officials earlier this month, New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan and Attorney General John Formella encouraged officials to release results of their respective polling locations once all ballots had been tallied, but said they could release Republican results earlier if write-in votes on the Democratic side are taking longer to count. 

"To the extent that counting the write-in votes takes longer than expected, the moderator may release the Republican results earlier than the Democratic results provided the results are complete and the moderator is comfortable that appropriate reconciliation has taken place for that party," the guidance said. 

Read more here.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who is supporting Haley's presidential bid, appears to be managing expectations for her performance here, telling CBS News' Robert Costa that Haley is "building on the momentum that she got out of Iowa; she's guaranteed herself a strong second-place finish here." He added that she is "now within a strong stone's throw of potentially beating Trump."

Pressed by Costa on what that means, Sununu said he believes Haley can get within single digits of Trump. He predicted that the former South Carolina governor could win over 40% of the vote tonight, and he dismissed polls as "nonsense." 

Sununu says he's advising Haley to remain in the race regardless of what happens tonight, and he expressed disappointment in some unnamed Republicans whom he said were publicly supporting Trump, but not backing him in private.

"I don't mind telling you, I'm more disappointed with those Republicans that I have had very detailed backroom conversations about Trump," Sununu told Costa. "I know none of them respect Trump. None of them like Trump, and now they're all galvanizing around Trump."

By Alisa Wiersema

In a memo to "interested parties" released Tuesday, Haley campaign manager Betsy Ankney said the campaign will continue past New Hampshire, regardless of the outcome.

"The political class and the media want to give Donald Trump a coronation. They say the race is over. They want to throw up their hands, after only 110,000 people have voted in a caucus in Iowa and say, well, I guess it's Trump," Ankney wrote. "That isn't how this works."

Calling Haley "the last hope to get our party and our country back on track," Ankney pointed to Super Tuesday states that, like New Hampshire, allow independents to vote in their GOP primaries. 

"Independents voting in primaries is nothing new — historically, GOP nominees have relied on Independents as part of their path to victory, including Donald Trump in 2016," she wrote. "But in 2024, Nikki Haley is the beneficiary of those Independents — in both the Republican primaries and the general election."

Ankney wrote that 11 of the 16 states and territories voting on Super Tuesday allow independents to cast ballots in their GOP races. 

"After Super Tuesday, we will have a very good picture of where this race stands. At that point, millions of Americans in 26 states and territories will have voted," she wrote. "Until then, everyone should take a deep breath."

While the Iowa caucuses were the first contest of the 2024 nomination cycle, caucuses differ from primaries in several key respects.

A caucus is essentially a community meeting. Voters gather at a set time and supporters of various candidates make their case to their neighbors. Primaries are more traditional elections, with polls open throughout the day and voting by secret ballot. Turnout is typically higher in a primary, since voters have more flexibility.

New Hampshire's position as the first primary contest is legally binding. The state has held first-in-the-nation primary status for more than a century, and a 1975 state law cemented its place on the calendar.

"The presidential primary election shall be held on the second Tuesday in March or on a date selected by the secretary of state which is 7 days or more immediately preceding the date on which any other state shall hold a similar election, whichever is earlier, of each year when a president of the United States is to be elected or the year previous," the law says.

Read more about why New Hampshire goes first here. 

After New Hampshire, there is a steady procession of primaries and caucuses leading up to the Republican National Convention in July, when the party's delegates will officially select their nominee. The importance of those contests depend on whether Haley can stay in the race. 

Nevada and the Virgin Islands are next on the GOP calendar, but a quirk in Nevada's selection process means Haley and Trump will not be going head-to-head in the caucuses that decide the state's delegates.

The next major contest will therefore be on Feb. 24 in South Carolina, Haley's home state. Michigan will hold its primary three days later, on Feb. 27.

From there, the race goes national, with Super Tuesday on March 5. 

Read more about the GOP primary schedule here.

Deep in New Hampshire's North Country, a handful of civic-minded Americans in a small town called Dixville Notch gathered late into the night on Monday to cast the first votes of the state's 2024 primary.

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley received all six votes.

"A great start to a great day in New Hampshire," Haley said after the votes were counted. "Thank you, Dixville Notch!"

The tradition of voting at midnight began more than 60 years ago, and has some surprising roots.

Read more about Dixville Notch here.