After New Hampshire, only one path to victory remained visible
BY PHILIP ELLIOTT
NIKKI HALEY DID ALMOST EVERYTHING RIGHT in New Hampshire. Well, except for the winning part. For close to a year, the former South Carolina governor did the quiet, unglamorous work of joining sparsely attended town halls. She met with local activists and student groups alike. She took the questions from voters seriously, even if her answers sometimes kicked back, like the one about the causes of the Civil War. Put plainly, she respected what veterans of that state call the New Hampshire Way.
Slingshotting into the state after a disappointing third-place finish in Iowa on Jan. 15, the lone Republican woman to run for the White House this year remained on a mission to work every room, often the last person to leave so she could greet everyone. New Hampshire’s popular Governor Chris Sununu was often at her side. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ exit from the race on Jan. 21 was supposed to provide nothing but upside for Haley’s prospects. And if ever there were a state that likes to zig when other states are zagging, New Hampshire is it.
Yet Haley just couldn’t get the upper hand against former President Donald Trump. New Hampshire’s motto—“Live free or die”—is a battle cry as much as it is a slogan. On Jan. 23, the state gave Trump new bragging rights: he became the first nonincumbent Republican presidential candidate to prevail in both Iowa and New Hampshire. It handed Haley a second loss of the year.
“You’ve all heard the chatter among the political class. They’re falling all over themselves saying this race is over,” Haley told supporters in Concord, N.H. “Well, I have news for all of them: New Hampshire is the first in the nation; it’s not the last in the nation.”
A defiant Haley used her election-night remarks to renew her call for Republicans to rethink their affinity for the ex-President, and made clear she would continue to push the age issue at every turn. “The first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to be the party that wins this election,” Haley said, dinging both Trump, 77, and President Joe Biden, 81.
It was clear Haley was spoiling for more contests. Yet being feisty on its own isn’t enough in a head-to-head contest against a foghorn who has no problem smashing through niceties, let alone norms.
Haley’s best bet was hoping that more Republicans reconsidered how much of an appetite
