By Kerry Eleveld
Daily Kos StaffREPUBLISHED BY:
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley could have dropped out after losing a second state to Donald Trump, but instead she pledged to take her better-than-expected showing in the Granite State and give her home state of South Carolina a chance to have its say.
Here are five very good reasons for Democrats to like what they saw in New Hampshire.
1.
Haley could have demurred to Trump and accepted her near-certain fate of being vanquished by him down the stretch. Not so fast, said Haley, who, since losing New Hampshire, has sharpened her attacks on Trump, questioning his mental competency and calling him a loser.
"With Donald Trump, Republicans have lost almost every competitive election. We lost the Senate, we lost the House, we lost the White House, we lost in 2018, we lost in 2020, and we lost in 2022,” Haley said on Tuesday night.
"Trump's a loser!" responded one voter in the crowd. "He's a loser!" echoed another.
In another section of the speech, Haley revisited Trump recently confusing her with former Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "The other day, Trump accused me of not providing security at the Capitol on Jan. 6," Haley recalled, eliciting chuckles from her supporters.
"Geriatric!" yelled one attendee.
Haley continued, saying she has long called for mental-competency tests for candidates over the age of 75. "Trump claims he'd do better than me in one of those tests—maybe he would, maybe he wouldn't," she said. "But if he thinks that, then he should have no problem standing on a debate stage with me.”
Frankly, this is some of the most pitch-perfect material we have seen from Haley. She looked poised and confident in the threat she poses to Trump (i.e., exposing his weaknesses), and best of all, her critiques immediately got under Trump's exceedingly thin skin.
2.
Trump seethed about Haley's speech despite the fact that she congratulated him on his win. He called it "bullshit," disparaged her dresses as cheap, and threatened her with an investigation unless she drops out.
So much for him calling for unity after Iowa. How dare Haley refuse to drop out and stop lodging completely true, blistering attacks on him!
But this is who Trump is—a seething loser. And the more it's on full display and the more voters get reacquainted with it, the better.
3.
The New Hampshire electorate highlighted Trump's general election weaknesses even as he dominates the Republican primaries.
Exit polls showed the party ID of the electorate included:
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51% of Republicans, down from 55% in 2016.
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43% of independents, a slight uptick from 42% in 2016.
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6% of voters who generally consider themselves Democrats double the 3% who voted in 2016. (Voters registered as Democrats could not vote in the Republican primary; only registered Republicans and undeclared voters could.)
In terms of total turnout, the roughly 300,000 voters who cast a ballot shattered the previous turnout record, set in 2016, when about 287,000 people voted in the Republican primary.
What that tells us is that although more voters turned out, fewer of them were Republican than in 2016, while more of them identified as independents and Democrats.
Haley overwhelmingly won those independents (58% to Trump's 39%) and voters who consider themselves Democrats but are registered otherwise (86% to Trump's 5%). In other words, the anti-Trump vote was very motivated to vote—a good sign for Democrats as President Joe Biden looks to rebuild his 2020 anti-Trump coalition.
But congrats, Republicans! You got your guy.
4.
Speaking of Biden, he put the “disruptive Democratic challenger” narrative to bed by trouncing his only real rival, Rep. Dean Phillips, with a write-in campaign, 55% to 20%. Finito.
5.
Haley planning to stay in the race is the icing on the cake for Democrats, especially as she appears to finally be hitting her messaging stride. Haley could drop out, but frankly, what else does she have to do?
As a strategist for a pro-Haley super PAC told NPR, "A month in politics is a long time."
Sure is, and Trump, at age 77, is carrying a world of legal weight on his shoulders. Who knows? Haley might just give it a month.
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