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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Donald Trump has won the New Hampshire Republican primary, cementing his status as the frontrunner for the party’s presidential nomination and raising questions about how long Nikki Haley would continue her bid for the White House.
Trump had 53 per cent of the votes counted at 8.20pm Eastern Standard Time, while Haley held just over 46 per cent. The Associated Press called the race for Trump just after polls closed at 8pm, although with votes still to be counted the exact margin his victory will only be known later in the evening.
Trump’s win in the state follows his historic landslide victory in the Iowa caucuses last week, when the former president won more than 50 per cent of the vote.
The victories in the two crucial early voting states give Trump huge momentum in his race to secure the Republican nomination for the White House, setting up a likely rematch in the 2024 presidential race with Democratic incumbent President Joe Biden.
The New Hampshire primary was make-or-break for Haley, the former UN ambassador who finished in a disappointing third place behind Ron DeSantis in Iowa.
DeSantis suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump at the weekend, saying it was “clear” that a “majority of Republican primary voters” wanted to give the former president another chance.
Trump has also secured high-profile endorsements from Tim Scott, a senator from Haley’s home state of South Carolina, and other leading Republicans and one-time rivals in recent days, including senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.
Haley and her allies had nevertheless bet that a coalition of moderate Republicans and independent voters in New Hampshire would help her defy opinion polls and defeat her former boss — or finish a close second, allowing her to credibly continue her campaign into the South Carolina primary on February 24.
While Trump’s victory in New Hampshire will raise serious questions about whether Haley will press on with her bid, Chris Sununu, the Republican governor of New Hampshire who endorsed Haley, said at the weekend that she did not “need” to win the state in order to stay in the race.
Sununu told NBC News on Sunday that Haley would “have a lot of time to build on the momentum she’s already created”, before the South Carolina primary.
