By Gram Slattery, James Oliphant and Nathan Layne
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) -Voters in New Hampshire were choosing whether to give Donald Trump a smooth glide to the Republican presidential nomination or bolster rival Nikki Haley’s longshot bid to topple him on Tuesday in a pivotal primary election.
The former U.S. president and the former South Carolina governor made their final pitches to voters in what became a two-person race after Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor once seen as the party’s best bet to take on Trump, dropped out and endorsed Trump.
Polls show Trump with a wide lead over Haley, who needs a victory or a strong second place showing in New Hampshire to carry her to the next nominating contest in her home state of South Carolina, where Trump is also dominant in the polls.
Trump had a record-setting victory in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation contest last week.
A resounding win in New Hampshire would help propel Trump to secure the party’s nomination despite multiple criminal counts against him, two impeachments and his chaotic 2017-2021 presidency.
The Republican nominee will face President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, in the general election in November.
Trump, who is balancing campaign stops with appearances in various courts, denies wrongdoing and has used the criminal charges to bolster his claim of political persecution.
He predicted victory in New Hampshire, a state with 1.3 million mostly white residents, in a social media post early on Tuesday.
“The corrupt Washington Swamp has done everything in its power to take away your voice — but on Tuesday, I believe New Hampshire is going to speak LOUD AND CLEAR,” Trump said.
The first ballots in New Hampshire, however, went to Haley. Voters in the tiny northern hamlet of Dixville Notch – always the first to vote in the state – chose Haley over Trump 6-0.
Haley called it a “good start” and said that, regardless of the result in New Hampshire, she would continue on to the next Republican primary in South Carolina on Feb 24.
“This has always been a marathon. It’s never been a sprint,” she said in Hampton, New Hampshire. Her campaign said on Tuesday it hoped to keep her candidacy alive through to Super Tuesday, when 16 states vote in early March.
DEMOCRATS STRATEGY
Biden is not on the ballot in New Hampshire’s Democratic primary, having supported an effort by national Democrats to move their first primary election to the more diverse state of South Carolina.
New Hampshire supporters will still be able to vote for him by writing Biden’s name on the ballot, which could be a barometer of his political strength.
The Democratic president, whose advisers are anticipating a rematch with Trump, is holding a rally in Virginia on Tuesday night with Vice President Kamala Harris to discuss the threat to abortion rights if Republicans win back the White House.
The rally comes after Virginia Democrats secured majorities in the state legislature after making abortion a central campaign issue.
The Supreme Court, with a conservative majority made possible by three justices who joined the court under Trump, struck down in 2022 the Roe vs Wade ruling that guaranteed women’s right to abortion.
Biden, in addition to focusing on abortion, has cast Trump as a would-be dictator and a threat to democracy.
In New Hampshire, Haley stepped up her attacks on Trump, who chose her as his U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, by criticizing his affinity for strongmen such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Haley has also gone after Trump’s age and mental acuity, attacks she has also regularly leveled at Biden.
She took up the theme again on Tuesday, saying the country needs to put someone in the White House that can put in eight years to get it back on track.
“Do you want two 80-year-olds running for president?” Haley asked.
In Manchester, voter Don Salem said he didn’t think people on either side wanted a Biden-Trump contest. Yet he backed Trump in 2020 and voted for him again on Tuesday.
“There’s been a lot of attacks on him, but I’ve ignored that for the most part,” Salem said.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery, James Oliphant and Nathan Layne; Additional reporting by Kia Johnson in New Hampshire, David Ljunggren in Ottawa, Susan Heavey in New Hampshire; Writing by Jeff Mason and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Kieran Murray and Alistair Bell)
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