Former US President Donald Trump has won the primary election for president in New Hampshire, getting even closer to the Republican nomination in the big race in November. With nearly 80% of the votes counted, Trump has won convincingly, with an 11% lead over competitor Nikki Haley.
Haley, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, has vowed to continue in the race despite Tuesday’s loss. Trump attacked Haley in his victory speech and said that when the primary elections are held in her hometown, in South Carolina, “we will win easily.”
In his speech, he also warned about immigration and repeated false claims of electoral fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Haley, on the other hand, insisted that the race is “far from over” and told supporters that Democrats they want more competition with Trump, because of his “chaotic” track record.
“They know that Trump is the only Republican in the state that Joe Biden can beat,” Haley said. Despite New Hampshire being added to the list of states won, after Iowa, Trump has continued with his tough rhetoric, giving no signs that he intends to win the support of the more moderate voters who support Haley.
At one point in the televised appearance, Trump said that the United States “has failed”, and claimed that undocumented migrants are heading to the US from mental hospitals and prisons, “to kill our country”. The current American president, Joe Biden, then said that “it is now clear that Donald Trump will be the nominee of the Republicans”.
“My message to the state is that the risk could not be greater. Our democracy. Our personal freedom – from the right to vote,” Biden said in a statement.
Biden, meanwhile, has scored an unofficial victory in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, giving him a symbolic boost. The president spent the day campaigning with Vice President Kamala Harris in Virginia at a march for abortion rights.
As Trump lauds himself for his role in ending the constitutional right to abortion in the US, Biden told a crowd that the Republican is determined to impose additional restrictions at all costs.