New Hampshire primary 2024: Trump projected to win, Haley vows to fight on

Haley promised to stay in the primary race at a speech tonight just after 8 p.m., when most news organizations had projected the race for Trump. She again made her pitch as one of electability, and slightly attacked the front-runner, Trump, to cheers from the crowd. "The worst kept secret in politics is how badly the Democrats want to run against Donald Trump," she said, saying Biden could defeat him but that she could win. With Trump, the story is court cases, chaos, and senior moments, she said. "I've long called for mental competency tests for politicians over the age of 75," she said. "Trump claims he'd do better than me in one of those tests. If he thinks that, then he should have no problem standing on a debate stage with me." It's unlikely Trump would debate her, but the crowd in New Hampshire ate it up, calling Trump a loser and geriatric. "The first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate will win this election," she said. We'll see in her home state of South Carolina, in about a month.

—Monica Potts, 538

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Nikki Haley speaks after Trump projected to win New Hampshire primary

Haley congratulated Donald Trump on his victory in the New Hampshire primary, but told her supporters that she is continuing her run, saying "I’m a fighter."

Dan, I'm not sure why Trump would risk getting on stage with her, especially when he can just snipe from Truth Social or in whatever town halls get scheduled between now and then. Avoiding the debates has worked wonderfully for Trump so far, and now that he's won New Hampshire, I don't see him adjusting that strategy. I think it would take an actual loss for him to feel pressured to show up. In fact, I don't think we'll see Trump on a debate stage at all this cycle, in the primary or general election.

—Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections

In her post-primary speech, Haley tries to goad Trump into a debate. The question is: can Trump resist calls to debate in the long interregnum between now and the South Carolina primary? He has resisted them so far.

—Dan Hopkins, 538 contributor

I wrote about this earlier, but the “electability” question usually plagues women who run for the presidency because of the perception that a woman can’t win the White House (and hasn’t yet!). But Haley uses the electability argument to support her candidacy over and over again, and is in her speech now, in New Hampshire.

—Meredith Conroy, 538 contributor