Snow, freezing rain, and low temperatures did not deter hundreds of people from squeezing into a country club outside Salem to see former President Donald Trump celebrate a victory lap one day after smashing his Republican opponents in the Iowa caucuses.
Trump, 77, won Iowa with a whopping 51% and is looking for another YUGE win in New Hampshire, which has its primary on Tuesday.
Despite a winter storm raging across the state, the former president arrived at the rally and boasted to the crowd about his record-breaking victory in Iowa.
“We now have our eyes on a very special place. I know that New Hampshire will never let us down, just like 2016 when we won in a landslide.”
Trump urged his remaining Republican opponents to drop out and work together “and move forward as one team … to beat crooked Joe Biden.”
He confronts more difficult competition in New Hampshire than in Iowa, where he defeated Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley by 30 percentage points.
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELTrump attacked Haley as a Democrat-endorsed and supported candidate. He stated that she does not favor robust border security or keeping the United States out of international wars.
“They don’t want any more of Trump ,” he added about Ms. Haley’s supporters. “They don’t want us. They want her.”
Ms. Haley competes with the former president in New Hampshire, which has more moderate Republican voters. According to polls, Ms. Haley is in clear second place, with the more conservative DeSantis trailing far behind. The state also contains undeclared voters, who outnumber Republicans and Democrats and can vote in the primary.
According to analysts, many of the undeclared could be Democratic voters who support Ms. Haley.
Ms. Haley, who came third in Iowa, just behind DeSantis, attempted to characterize the race as a two-person race between herself and Trump. She stated that she would not attend the next two debates with DeSantis, which are slated for later this week, unless Trump attends, which is improbable.
“I’ll debate Donald Trump right here, right now. He can’t hide forever,” Haley, 51, said as she campaigned across the state alongside Gov. Chris Sununu, who has endorsed her.
Following her declaration, ABC News canceled the Thursday debate, despite DeSantis’s promise to show up and debate two empty chairs.
For Ms. Haley, the stakes are tremendous. Political analysts believe she needs to win in New Hampshire to keep her candidacy alive.
She hosted a campaign event Tuesday night at the Mount Washington Hotel & Resort in Bretton Woods, roughly 130 miles north of Salem, and plans to hold another rally Wednesday in Rochester.
Some experts believe that another decisive victory for Trump in New Hampshire may finish the nomination fight long before the Feb. 24 primary in Ms. Haley’s home state of South Carolina, where Trump leads by more than 30 points in surveys.
DeSantis’ chances of victory in New Hampshire are the slimmest of the three contenders. Polls indicate him at around 7% among likely primary voters. He campaigned in South Carolina early Tuesday and postponed a campaign event in New Hampshire later that day, citing inclement weather and dangerous driving conditions.
Ms. Haley did not let the rain deter her from pursuing Trump on the New Hampshire campaign route, where polling averages show her 16 points behind the former president, half of his margin in Iowa. CNN/University of New Hampshire conducted a survey last week that showed Ms. Haley trailing the former president by only 7 points.
She might cut the deficit even further by gaining support from those who backed former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a hard Trump opponent who pulled out of the contest earlier this month.
Trump’s support could potentially increase. He is expected to receive support from biotechnology tycoon Vivek Ramaswamy, who withdrew out of the contest after finishing fourth in Iowa.
Ramaswamy, 38, who ran as a next-generation Trump, was polling at 5% in New Hampshire before withdrawing. He came on stage with the former president in Atkinson and gave a passionate endorsement.
Trump’s fans waited in line for hours to enter the Atkinson Country Club, shivering in driving sleet after an afternoon of snow and temperatures in the low 20s.
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