I’m stone’s throw from Trump, says Haley despite loss
Challenger insists she can fight back against former president in next week’s New Hampshire primary
NIKKI HALEY said she was a “stone’s throw” away from Donald Trump in the next Republican primary despite his crushing victory in Iowa.
The former South Carolina governor sought to dispel concerns that the race was already over, as a poll showed the pair were level among probable primary voters in New Hampshire.
The survey by the American Research group suggests they each have 40 per cent support – a seven-point increase for Ms Haley in the past two weeks. Mr Desantis has the support of 4 per cent of voters in the state, the poll shows.
In Iowa, Mr Trump won more votes than all of the other candidates combined on Monday night, beating Ms Haley and Mr Desantis in 98 of Iowa’s 99 counties. Mr Desantis finished second, with 21 per cent of the vote, narrowly beating Ms Haley on 19 per cent.
All eyes have now turned to New Hampshire, which will vote for its preferred nominee next Tuesday.
Ms Haley’s polling bounce is thought to be driven by the withdrawal of Chris Christie, who had 10 per cent support in the group’s last poll on Jan 3. Although the survey is an outlier compared with most polls, which show a Trump lead, it is the first conducted since Mr Christie suspended his campaign on Jan 10.
Ms Haley and Mr Desantis flew straight to New Hampshire yesterday, while Mr Trump appeared in court in New York for a defamation lawsuit brought against him by E Jean Carroll, who has accused him of sexual abuse.
He claimed that the trial was a “giant Election Interference Scam”, adding: “I had no idea who this woman was. PURE FICTION!” It is set to determine whether Ms Carroll, an author, should receive damages for Mr Trump’s 2019 statement that she had invented her claims of sexual abuse.
Ms Haley said the Iowa result had made the primary a “two-person race” between her and Mr Trump.
She is expected to perform better in New Hampshire than most other states as it allows independent voters to take part. They are expected to skew towards her more moderate campaign. The poll shows Mr Trump leads Ms Haley by 47 per cent to 35 per cent among registered Republicans. Ms Haley leads Mr Trump by 51 per cent to 24 per cent among registered independent voters.
Mr Trump’s victory was the largest in the history of Iowa’s Republican primary, and sets his campaign on course to win the nomination and take on Joe Biden for the presidency in November.
Reacting to the result, Mr Biden said Mr Trump was the “clear frontrunner on the other side,” adding that the election “was always going to be you and me versus extreme MAGA Republicans”. In his victory speech, Mr Trump praised his “talented”, “smart” rivals, and called for the country to “come together”.
Although Mr Desantis beat Ms Haley to second place in Iowa, his share of the vote was lower than many in his campaign expected. Early signs suggested he had failed to win over a majority of evangelical Christians, as he had hoped.
The result contradicted polls conducted in the final days of the campaign, which had put Ms Haley ahead of Mr Desantis. She won only one county.
Vivek Ramaswamy, the firebrand entrepreneur who launched a presidential campaign without any political experience, withdrew from the race after receiving an 8 per cent vote share and backed Mr Trump.
Asa Hutchinson, another longshot candidate who secured fewer than 200 votes across the state, has also suspended his campaign.