Donald Trump has won the New Hampshire primary, effectively putting the Republican presidential nomination in his grasp for the third time as he defeated his remaining rival, Nikki Haley, in the state where her fortunes appeared strongest.

The Associated Press and television networks projected Trump’s victory shortly after polls closed, based on early returns and surveys of voters.

Although only two states have voted, and only a small fraction of the delegates to this summer’s nominating convention have been allocated, Trump’s victory in Tuesday’s primary underscored his dominance of the party.

Haley, the former South Carolina governor, had spent weeks campaigning here, hoping for a win that could ignite her challenge to Trump, who made few public appearances in the state.

Moderate Republicans and independent voters make up a larger share of the primary vote here than in most other states. According to preliminary results of the exit poll conducted for major television networks, 31% of voters identified as moderates, compared with 9% Iowa’s caucuses last week, which Trump won by a large margin.

In New Hampshire, one quarter of voters identified as very conservative compared with just over half in Iowa. White evangelicals were 1-in-5 New Hampshire voters, compared with 55% in Iowa,the exit poll found.

Moreover, Haley had the backing of the state’s Republican governor, Chris Sununu, who campaigned energetically for her.

None of that helped.

Although she said before the vote that she would continue with her campaign even if she lost, Republican leaders already had begun referring to Trump this week as the “presumptive nominee” and calling on Haley to drop out.

That pressure likely will mount as the race moves toward her home state, which votes next month. Polls there show Trump with a lead that averages about 30 points.

Haley had one good moment early in the day when the tiny town of Dixville Notch, in the far northern part of the state, held its traditional midnight meeting of voters. She won all six.

“A great start to a great day in New Hampshire,” Haley said in a statement shortly after the vote. “Thank you Dixville Notch!”

On the Democratic side, President Biden won, according to A.P., even though his name was not on the ballot. Democrats decided last year to overhaul their primary calendar, arguing that New Hampshire and Iowa, the traditional first two states to vote, don’t represent the nation’s demographics.

But the president’s supporters mounted an aggressive write-in campaign, and in partial returns, write-ins appeared to make up a large majority of the vote. State officials said, however, that official results of the Democratic balloting may not be available until Wednesday because of the time needed to tally the write-in votes.

New Hampshire has played an out-sized role in the presidential nominating process for decades. Its small size allows for a style of retail politics that has largely disappeared from campaigns elsewhere.

This year, the attention in the Republican race was especially intense because the state was widely viewed as the best opportunity that Trump’s opponents would have to try to derail his drive for the nomination.

Despite facing 91 felony counts in four criminal cases — including an effort to subvert the last election, Trump overwhelmingly won the Iowa caucuses.

That forced Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who once appeared to be Trump’s toughest opponent, to drop out on Sunday and endorse the former president, becoming the latest in a string of rivals to fold.

DeSantis’ decision to suspend his campaign left Haley as the sole major Republican rival to the former president.

In the final days here, Haley and Trump increasingly scrapped. On Monday, as Haley barnstormed New Hampshire, she argued to voters that the former president should not be reelected because of the criminal charges he is facing and his fixation on those he regards as enemies.

She also questioned his mental fitness after he confused her with Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic former House Speaker, during a campaign appearance on Friday.

“Republicans have lost the last seven out of eight popular votes for president, and that is nothing to be proud of,” she told the crowd at her final campaign rally, in Salem, along New Hampshire’s coast.

“We should want to win the majority of Americans — but the only way we’re going to do that is if we elect a new generational conservative leader.”

At another appearance, in Franklin, N.H., she said: “When you go out on Tuesday, you’re going to decide: Do you want more of the same, or do you want something new?”

Matt LaBrake, 58, a business-systems analyst for the state of New Hampshire, said he was sticking with Trump, whom he backed for the third time. He said he liked the former president’s “no nonsense” demeanor: “He calls things like he sees them,” LaBrake said.

A registered Republican, LaBrake said he especially supported Trump’s mission to close the U.S.-Mexico border and keep the country out of wars.

Dolores Deneault, 59, was eager to cast her vote for Haley. Government needs new blood, she said, and Haley represented that for her.

“She is actually experienced,” said DeNeault, an information systems manager. “But looking at things in a different view, not keeping the same old, same old.”

A registered Republican, she said she had never voted for Trump because of his demeanor.

“I don’t like the fact that he can just say, ‘Yeah, march to the White House,’ and then all that turmoil happens,” she said. “I also don’t like the fact that he’s allowed to run when he’s going through trials … I don’t think that he should be allowed.”

Other voters waited until the final moments to decide.

Standing outside the Merrimack Valley High School polling location, Julie, 58, who declined to give her last name, shifted from one foot to the other as she considered the candidates.

“I really, as a woman, want to be able to vote for Nikki Haley. I think she’s very intelligent. I think she’d make an okay president,” she said. “But she’s not as seasoned in business operations.”

She appreciated Trump’s business perspective, but worried about “his shenanigans with people and how he speaks to people.”

“I’m really torn,” she said. “I’m still thinking, do I want to vote for Nikki Haley?”

Minutes before the polls closed, Concord resident Kevin Prince strode into Merrimack Valley High School to cast his vote, confident in Trump. He had seriously considered Haley, he said, but ultimately decided that he’d rather have “a known quantity to an unknown quantity.”

It would be the third time the registered independent would be voting for the president.

Prince said he was hoping for Trump to bring back domestic drilling. “Oil is everything,” he said.”

Green energy is great, but it don’t work. We’re not ready for green energy. The technology is not there yet,” the 63-year-old said. “It’s causing inflation. And I personally don’t care for inflation.”

“It seems like on the foreign front, things were much quieter when [Trump] was president,”  he added. “Right now they’re not.”

Trump, who ramped up his attacks on Haley in recent days, predicted victory as he spoke to voters in Laconia, N.H., on Monday.

“Every day the Republican Party is becoming more and more unified,” he said. “We started off with 13 [rivals] and now we are down to two people, and I think one person will be gone probably tomorrow.”

Pinho reported from Concord, Mehta from Los Angeles and Lauter from Washington, D.C.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.