Jan. 23 (UPI) — Nikki Haley has congratulated former President Donald Trump, who is projected to win the New Hampshire Republican primary on Tuesday.
The primary results were still far from final when Haley congratulated Trump before 9 p.m. EST. About 21% of votes were recorded at the time and the former president carried about 54% of those votes.
“I have news for all of them,” Haley told a crowd in Concord, N.H. “New Hampshire is the first in the nation. It is not the last in the nation.”
If Trump’s margin of victory holds he is projected to be awarded 11 delegates, according to CNN. Haley, who has more than 35,000 votes — about 9,000 fewer than Trump — would earn eight delegates.
On the other side of the political aisle in the state, the Democratic primary was an “overwhelming victory” for President Joe Biden, according to state party chairman Ray Buckley. Biden did not appear on the primary ballot with Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., and author Marianne Williamson. A campaign to write-in Biden delivered about 5,000 votes for the president with about 6% of votes tallied.
“Despite President Biden’s absence from the ballot, Granite Staters still turned out in robust numbers to show their support for the great work that the Biden-Harris administration has done to grow the economy, protect reproductive freedoms and defend our democracy,” Buckley said in a statement. “Once again, New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary made history — and we are proud as ever.”
Delegates are not expected to be seated from the Democratic primary. The Democratic National Committee has ruled that South Carolina’s Feb. 3 primary will be the first in the nation. An official from the Write-In Joe Biden campaign told UPI an agreement may still be made to seat New Hampshire’s delegates at the national convention.
