How Haley, Phillips can contribute

The presidential election matchup much of the country dreads became increasingly inevitable in New Hampshire on Tuesday as former President Donald Trump won the Republican primary and President Joe Biden “won” a nonsanctioned primary as a write-in candidate. But both of their top challengers vowed to fight on.

The race is “far from over,” Republican runner-up Nikki Haley told supporters, pledging to carry the campaign to her home state of South Carolina. But there, as nationwide with GOP voters, polls show a sizable lead for Trump, who characteristically was not magnanimous over his 54.4% to 43.3% victory on Tuesday. Dropping his post-Iowa-caucuses call for unity, a visibly irritated Trump tried to denigrate Haley — just as he has every opponent since his initial run in 2016 — and added: “I don’t get too angry — I get even.”

Haley shouldn’t be intimidated. But she should be realistic. Trump’s transformation of a once-principled party to one ready to nominate a twice-impeached ex-president facing four indictments and 91 criminal charges is now almost complete. But Haley can offer an alternative, focusing on what used to be core Republican, indeed American, values like standing by allies and standing up to the truth. Voter polls in Iowa and New Hampshire show that a majority of Republicans in those states believe Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.

In the same vein, Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., has every right — and in fact sees it as a responsibility — to also continue his candidacy. Although in a Wednesday interview with an editorial writer, Phillips clarified comments he had made days earlier about potentially running as a third-party candidate.