Trump set to trounce rival Haley in New Hampshire
DONALD Trump was last night heading towards victory in the New Hampshire primary – despite his closest rival claiming she would cause an upset.
Polls showed Mr Trump was set to beat Nikki Haley, his former UN ambassador, by 19 points in the vote towards the Republican Party nomination.
He said Mrs Haley should drop out, but she hit back that the 77-year-old was too old to return to the White House.
The vote in New Hampshire is the second of the primary season, and is seen as the last chance to stop Mr Trump. In a boost to Mrs Haley, 52, she won all six votes in the tiny town of Dixville Notch.
Voters in the rest of the state lined up from 6am to cast their ballots.
Unlike the Iowa caucus last week, which Mr Trump won by a landslide, New Hampshire is an open election – meaning independent voters can choose the Republican candidate.
Previous upsets in the primary have seen Senator John McCain beat the overwhelming favourite of the establishment, George W. Bush, in 2000.
And in 2008 Hillary Clinton beat Barack Obama, who was on a high after winning Iowa. Mrs Haley said: ‘You need somebody at the top of their game, who can put in eight years, not settling for two 80-year-olds running for president.’
Mr Trump’s projected win comes despite the 91 criminal charges he faces across four cases – with trials likely to take place before the election in November.
Success in New Hampshire would make him the first Republican presidential candidate to claim the state and Iowa since the two states began leading the primary election calendar in 1976.