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

Trump and Biden had strong showings in the first-in-the-nation primary.

Former President Donald Trump will win the 2024 New Hampshire GOP primary, ABC News projects. As of 10 p.m. Eastern, Trump was ahead by less than 10 percentage points. While that represents a slight overperformance of polling for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, even a close loss is a big hit to her prospects, as she had staked her campaign on a strong performance in the Granite State. Haley spoke shortly after the projection to emphasize that "this race is far from over," while Trump (and his allies) amped up calls for her to drop out.

ABC News has also projected that President Joe Biden will win the Granite State's Democratic primary. A comfortable write-in victory for him despite not even being on the ballot is a good sign for the incumbent.


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New Hampshire GOP voters know the difference a candidate can make come November

If there's any state where Republican primary voters are likely to worry about Trump's ability to win in November, it might just be New Hampshire. In 2010, after the establishment-backed Kelly Ayotte won the GOP Senate primary there by a hair, she won the general election by more than 20 percentage points. In 2022, however, after the Trump-style Don Bolduc narrowly prevailed in the GOP Senate primary, he lost the general by almost 10 points.

Dan Hopkins, 538 contributor


Write-ins lead on the Democratic side

The Associated Press (via The New York Times) is showing 12 percent of the expected vote already counted on the Democratic side. Write-ins — likely mostly votes for Biden — lead with 73 percent, followed by Phillips at 22 percent and Williamson at 4 percent. That would be a robust showing for the president.

—Nathaniel Rakich, 538


Signs of high turnout in the Republican primary

At around 4:30 p.m., Americans for Prosperity Regional Director Greg Moore said on X (formerly Twitter) that he'd heard from sources in the New Hampshire secretary of state office that towns around the state had gone through more than 80 percent of GOP primary ballots available statewide, and that some towns were calling to ask for more to avoid running out. Polls in much of the state closed at 7 p.m Eastern, but a few places are open until 8 p.m.

Now, the Koch-affiliated AFP endorsed Haley to much fanfare earlier this cycle, so high turnout certainly would make Haley supporters feel hopeful about the number of independent voters taking part in the primary, who generally are more likely to support Haley than Trump. Still, ABC News's current total expected vote total in New Hampshire is 330,000 votes. Although that figure may change as the night wears on — it could go higher or lower — that many votes would represent nearly 30 percent of the state's entire voting-eligible population — that is, anyone who is eligible to register and vote. A turnout rate at that mark would be on par with the highest turnout in the state's modern history, which was the highly-competitive 2008 Democratic presidential primary.

Geoffrey Skelley, 538


Most GOP voters see no trade-off between top choice, electability

Four years ago, Democratic primary voters faced a situation similar to Republicans today: they were choosing a presidential nominee to unseat an incumbent with a low approval rating. But there's an important difference. Democrats emphasized electability, and though Biden was few Democrats' top pick — having finished fourth in Iowa and then fifth in New Hampshire — he benefited from the perception that he would run well against Trump.

For today's Republicans, the situation is much simpler: Trump is both the overwhelming first choice and the candidate they view as most electable. In a November 2023 survey that I conducted with the pollster YouGov, I found that 66 percent of Republican primary voters nationally backed Trump, but also that 72 percent of them thought that Trump was most likely to beat Biden. Despite some polling showing Haley running better against Biden nationally, most Republican primary voters see no trade-off between backing their preferred candidate (Trump) and winning in November.

Dan Hopkins, 538 contributor


New Hampshire independents boosted Haley, but they weren't enough for her

Coming into today, a big question was whether independents would turn out a high level and put Haley in a competitive position versus Trump. Based on the preliminary exit poll, the answer was yes — but not enough for Haley to win. Overall, 45 percent of voters identified as independent or something else, and they went for Haley by 24 points, 61 percent to 37 percent. However, self-identified Republicans made up 4 percent of the electorate and. broke for Trump by 39 points, 74 percent to 25 percent. Even with a little help from the 6 percent who identified as Democrats (went for Haley 84 percent to 6 percent), Haley couldn't catch Trump because of his overwhelming edge among Republicans.

Another aspect of the independent question is New Hampshire's electoral access rules, which permit those not registered with a party — "undeclared" voters — to vote in party primaries. That group, which includes many self-identified independents, did turn out in a big way, making up 47 percent of the electorate to registered Republicans' 50 percent (same-day registrants made up the rest). And Haley won among undeclared voters 66 percent to 32 percent. But Trump won among registered Republicans 74 percent to 24 percent. These numbers will change somewhat after further weighting based on the results, but the big takeaway is that independents put Haley in range, but Trump's dominance among Republicans preserved his edge.

—Geoffrey Skelley, 538