Live updates: Haley turns to South Carolina after Trump’s New Hampshire win

More people cast votes in Tuesday’s New Hampshire GOP primary than in any previous presidential primary for either party in the state’s history.

As of the latest vote tally on Wednesday afternoon, nearly 318,000 New Hampshire Republicans and independents cast votes in the first-in-the-nation primary. That exceeded the previous record set in the 2020 Democratic primary, when more than 298,000 Democrats and independents decided a contest between U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of neighboring Vermont, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and a crowded field.

The AP estimates the total turnout in this year’s Republican primary will be approximately 330,000.

With more than 95% of the expected vote reported, there’s a single delegate left to be allocated in the New Hampshire Republican primary. But no matter where that spare ends up as the final ballots are counted, Trump is far ahead in the overall delegate count through the first two contests.

New Hampshire assigns its Republican delegates proportionally among candidates who win at least 10% of the vote statewide. Trump, who placed first, and Haley, who placed second, will split the state’s 22 delegates, as no other candidate hit 10%.

Trump will receive 12 delegates, more than half of the state’s total. Haley has locked down nine delegates, but she’s on the cusp of receiving 10. If Haley does end up with 10 delegates, that’s the end of the count for New Hampshire. If she doesn’t reach 10, however, then we’re left with one extra delegate. According to RNC rules in New Hampshire, that extra delegate goes to the person who won the most votes: Trump.

In Iowa, Trump won 20 delegates to Haley’s eight.

Barely 400,000 votes have been cast in two rural Republican primaries over the span of eight days. But both Donald Trump and Joe Biden are behaving like their parties’ nominees already.

Trump’s double-digit victory Tuesday in independent-minded New Hampshire, where he was considered more vulnerable than perhaps anywhere else, was a rhetorical tipping point for both Democrats and Republicans.

“It is now clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee. And my message to the country is the stakes could not be higher,” President Joe Biden said hours after Trump’s victory Tuesday night.

▶ This is an excerpt from a longer story. Keep reading.

Haley donors sounded an upbeat note a day after her second-place finish in New Hampshire, satisfied that the race had become a two-person contest.

A fundraiser planned for next week in New York, with hosts including 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s top fundraiser Spencer Zwick, was expected to go forward, with plans for more events in February.

“She mentioned two months in her speech last night, and the campaign has a game plan to bring this through to Super Tuesday,” said campaign donor and fundraiser Ozzie Palomo, referring to the March 5 slate of contests. “My thought is, Let’s focus on the task at hand in the next state, which is South Carolina.”

“She’s made the decision to bring this fight down there, and my sense is that she sees a path to be competitive,” Palomo added.

Read More

COLUMBIA, S.C. — During a call with reporters on Wednesday, Mark Harris, chief strategist for the super PAC supporting Haley, said that the candidate “has a path” to the GOP nomination, regardless of Trump’s two wins in the earliest votes.

Pointing toward Haley’s native South Carolina, Harris said the first-in-the-South state “is where the battleground is going to be,” noting that the open primary means that any Democrats who opt not to participate in their party’s Feb. 3 primary can choose to support Haley in the Feb. 24 vote.

In terms of the vote in South Carolina, where Trump boasts many endorsements among elected leaders, Harris said he was more focused on the voters.

“It will not be politicians. It won’t be party insiders,” Harris said. “It won’t be campaign officials. It will be voters. Voters get to make this decision. Thats the beauty of American democracy.”

CONCORD, N.H. — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s campaign says it has gathered enough signatures from registered voters in New Hampshire to qualify for the state’s ballot in the general election.

The independent candidate already has qualified for the ballot in another state, Utah.

Some have questioned whether he or another independent or third-party candidate could play spoiler in a close presidential race this fall.

But the candidate, who is known for his environmental conservation work and anti-vaccine empire, has a long road ahead. Each state sets its own requirements to qualify for the ballot, and the process can be costly for candidates not backed by the major parties.

Read More

After an extended period of gloom, Americans are starting to feel better about inflation and the economy. A measure of consumer sentiment by the University of Michigan has jumped in the past two months by the most since 1991.

Economists say consumers appear to be responding to steadily slower inflation, higher incomes, lower gas prices and a rising stock market. Inflation has tumbled from a peak of around 9% in June 2022 to 3.4%.

Yet prices are still nearly 17% higher than they were three years ago, a source of discontent for many Americans.

That dichotomy — a rapid fall in inflation with a still-elevated cost of living — will likely set up a key question in the minds of voters, many of whom are still feeling the lingering financial and psychological effects of the worst bout of inflation in four decades.

Which will carry more weight in the presidential election: The dramatic decline in inflation or the fact that most prices are much higher than they were three years ago?

▶ This is an excerpt from a longer story. Keep reading.

WASHINGTON— Haley is set to campaign in her home state of South Carolina on Wednesday and address the U.S. Virgin Islands by Zoom as the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination moves beyond the first two voting states.

Trump flew back to Florida on Tuesday night after a strong performance in New Hampshire. It was his third straight New Hampshire primary victory, tying a record previously held by Richard Nixon, who won the event in 1960, 1968 and 1972. Trump is the first presidential candidate to win three consecutive New Hampshire primaries.

The next primary is scheduled for Feb. 3 in South Carolina on the Democratic side.

Read More

President Joe Biden will be the keynote speaker Wednesday at a United Auto Workers’ political convention as he works to sway blue-collar workers his way in critical auto-making swing states such as Michigan and Wisconsin.

Biden frequently bills himself as the most labor-friendly leader in American history, and went so far as to turn up on a picket line with union workers at a GM parts warehouse in the Detroit area during a strike last fall.

But as recently as Monday, UAW President Shawn Fain was restrained in his comments, saying as the convention opened, “We have to make our political leaders stand up with us. Support our cause, or you will not get our endorsement.”

▶ This is an excerpt from a longer story. Keep reading.

Read More

WASHINGTON _ President Joe Biden says New Hampshire’s primary results make it clear that he will face off against his 2020 rival, former President Donald Trump, in 2024.

In a statement, Biden thanked those who wrote in his name for the Democratic primary and appealed to independent and Republican voters who reject Trump to support his campaign.

“My message to the country is the stakes could not be higher,” Biden said. “Our Democracy. Our personal freedoms — from the right to choose to the right to vote. Our economy — which has seen the strongest recovery in the world since COVID. All are at stake.”

NASHUA, N.H.— If voters were looking for a magnanimous victory speech from Trump, they didn’t get it Tuesday night.

“You can’t let people get away with (expletive),” Trump railed as he criticized Haley for failing to exit the race after he won New Hampshire’s GOP primary.

From the stage, former candidate and now-Trump backer Vivek Ramaswamy declared the race over.

But if Trump is looking to pivot to the general election, he didn’t do so Tuesday.

Instead, he repeated lies about the 2020 election and slammed those who voted for Haley, saying they only did so “‘cause they want me to look as bad as possible.”

Read More

NASHUA, N.H. — Trump is lacing into Haley as he celebrates his win in the New Hampshire primary.

Unlike his election night speech in Iowa, where he called for unity, Trump is making clear his fury that Haley is not dropping out after finishing second.

“This is not your typical victory speech, but let’s not have someone take a victory when she had a very bad night,” Trump said, complaining that Haley came in third in Iowa “and she’s still hanging around.”

“I don’t get too angry. I get even,” he told a crowd of supporters packed into a steamy hotel ballroom.

The state’s moderate tradition, the participation of independents, a huge advertising disparity and even a popular governor were all working against the former president.

But Trump overcame all of that, somewhat easily, putting himself on a glide path to a third consecutive Republican presidential nomination that can likely be stopped at this point only by an unprecedented collapse or unforeseen external circumstances.

Never before has a presidential candidate won the first two contests on the primary nomination calendar — as Trump has now done — and failed to emerge as the party’s general election nominee, substantially increasing the already quite likely prospect of a rematch between him and President Joe Biden.

▶ This is an excerpt from a longer story. Keep reading.

NASHUA, N.H.— Among those attending Trump’s election night party at the Nashua Sheraton: former New York congressman George Santos.

“I am a Trump supporter. There’s, like, a lot of surprise to see me here. You’re going to see me at a lot more of these,” Santos told The Associated Press.

Asked if he was planning to have any formal role as a surrogate, he said he wasn’t. “I’m just having fun!”

Earlier in the day, Santos appeared for a brief hearing in federal court on Long Island ahead of his criminal fraud trial, which is slated for later this year. He said he doesn’t plan to vote in next month’s special election to fill his now vacant seat in Congress.

CONCORD, N.H.— Haley didn’t win New Hampshire, but she says her 2024 campaign is full steam ahead regardless.

Appearing at her election night party Tuesday, Haley thanked New Hampshire “for the love, the kindness, the support and a great night.”

Haley congratulated Trump on his victory, saying, “He earned that, and I want to acknowledge that.”

But Haley said that the GOP race “is far from over.” She vowed to take her “scrappy” campaign onward to her home state of South Carolina, which holds its GOP primary next month.

Haley also took a swipe at Trump for appearing to confuse her with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying that his avowed confidence that he would score higher than her on a competency test should mean that he “should have no problem standing on a debate stage with me.”

WASHINGTON — Haley drew her support from groups that were distinct minorities in the GOP electorate, according to AP VoteCast. She beat Trump among primary participants who were not formally affiliated with any party. About half of her supporters were college graduates and about half identified as moderates.

▶ Read more about AP VoteCast.

WASHINGTON — About 8 in 10 GOP primary participants said they expect Trump will win the presidential nomination, according to AP VoteCast. Only about 2 in 10 say Haley will secure it.

More than half of Haley’s own supporters think Trump will be victorious in the nominating contest.

▶ Read more about AP VoteCast.

WASHINGTON — AP VoteCast showed Trump won big in small towns and rural communities, where about two-thirds of primary participants said they live. Most GOP voters in the state lack a college degree and about two-thirds of them voted for Trump. The former president won about 7 in 10 Republican voters who identified as conservatives and those who were registered Republicans.

▶ Read more about AP VoteCast.

WASHINGTON — The Associated Press declared President Joe Biden the winner of New Hampshire’s Democratic primary based on an analysis of initial vote returns where write-in votes have been tabulated by candidate.

The early returns confirm the findings of AP’s VoteCast survey of likely Democratic primary voters, which found an overwhelming majority of write-in voters supporting the incumbent president. Together, they show that Biden has an insurmountable lead over the rest of the Democratic field.

Biden decided not to put his name on the New Hampshire ballot, since the state’s primary violates Democratic Party rules. It was Biden’s idea to bump the state from its prized first-in-the-nation primary calendar slot in favor of South Carolina, which resuscitated his struggling campaign in 2020. Instead, his supporters are backing him as a write-in candidate.

The VoteCast survey asked likely voters if they would support U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, author Marianne Williamson or someone else. Of those who said they support someone else, nearly all indicated they would write in Biden.

As of 8:09 p.m., Phillips and Williamson were at 21% and 5% of the tabulated vote, respectively, and AP’s analysis shows that there are no scenarios for either to end up the winner.

President Joe Biden has won New Hampshire’s Democratic primary as a write-in candidate.

Biden didn’t campaign in the state or have his name placed on the ballot after New Hampshire defied new party rules by holding its primary before South Carolina’s.

Haley has finished second in New Hampshire to Trump, a setback in her effort to reset the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

The former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina governor, who invested significant time and financial resources in the state, ramped up her criticism of Trump after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dropped out of the race and she became the sole GOP alternative to him.

But the appeal ultimately failed to resonate with enough voters, and she’s in a weakened position heading into a primary in her home state.

WASHINGTON — The Associated Press declared Trump the winner based on an analysis of initial vote returns as well as the results of AP VoteCast, a survey of Republican primary voters. Both indicated Trump was running ahead of Haley by an insurmountable margin.

Initial results from more than 25 townships showed Trump leading by a comfortable margin as of 8 p.m. This includes results from Manchester and Concord, two of the state’s three most-populous cities. Early returns were also reported from more rural areas in the northern and eastern parts of the state. All confirmed the findings of AP’s survey.

The only areas in which Haley was leading Trump in early returns were in the state’s most Democratic-leaning cities and towns, such as Concord, Keene and Portsmouth.

VoteCast showed Trump leading Haley by a substantial margin across all regions of the state. It also showed Haley supported by a majority of unaffiliated voters choosing to cast their ballot in the Republican primary. That wasn’t enough to make up for Trump’s nearly 50-point lead among registered Republicans. New Hampshire allows voters not affiliated with a political party to participate in either party’s primary. Voters registered with a party may only vote in their own party’s primary.

New Hampshire’s 22 delegates will be allocated proportionally among candidates who receive at least 10% of the vote statewide.

Donald Trump has won New Hampshire’s GOP primary, delivering a setback to rival Nikki Haley, who is running out of time to establish herself as a viable alternative to him.

It was his second straight victory in his quest for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. He won Iowa’s leadoff caucuses by 30 percentage points.

Allies of President Joe Biden, meanwhile, are hoping their write-in campaign on the Democratic side is successful. Polls closed statewide at 8 p.m.

There often comes a time in modern presidential campaigns when the last bit of drama has been drained out of a party nomination fight and the crowning of the eventual standard-bearer seems like a foregone conclusion. But we’re not there yet.

Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump are the front-runners for their respective parties’ presidential nominations. Though you may start to hear them referred to as their parties’ “presumptive nominees,” The Associated Press only uses that term once a candidate has captured the number of delegates needed to win a majority vote at the national party conventions this summer.

That point won’t come until after more states have voted. For both Republicans and Democrats, the earliest it could happen is March.

▶ This is an excerpt from a longer story. Keep reading.

Read More

Polls are beginning to close in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primaries. Polls in most of the state closed at 7 p.m. ET and some close at 7:30 p.m. The last polls in the state close at 8 p.m.

And in tiny Dixville Notch, which has only a handful of residents, polls opened at midnight and closed a few minutes later after all voters cast a ballot.

Read More

WASHINGTON — Biden is dispatching two of his senior-most White House advisers to his reelection campaign in Delaware as his focus shifts to the general election in November.

The new roles for deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon and senior adviser Mike Donilon had been expected, and campaign aides insisted it was not a sign of a broader shakeup. The campaign said Donilon would focus on advertising and strategy, while O’Malley Dillon would work on organizing and the electoral mechanics.

The “I Voted” stickers handed out at today’s presidential primary polling locations were designed by fourth grade students as part of a state-wide contest.

Read More

NASHUA, N.H. — Trump’s legal, political and personal worlds are colliding at Trump’s election night party.

His son Eric Trump, daughter-in-law Lara Trump, lawyer Alina Habba and valet Walt Nauta were among the figures from Trump’s orbit wandering around the Nashua hotel hours before Trump was set to take the stage.

Habba has been representing Trump in several of the legal cases he faces, including his civil fraud trial in New York and civil sex abuse and defamation trial.

Nauta was Trump’s valet at the White House before joining him as a personal aide at Mar-a-Lago. He was charged along with Trump in a federal case over the mishandling of classified documents. Nauta has pleaded not guilty to charges that he helped the former president hide classified documents from federal authorities. He has remained by Trump’s side as he campaigns and attends court hearings for his various legal cases.

VoteCast offers insight – available starting at 5 p.m. ET on the day of an election – about registered voters who cast a ballot, as well as those who decide not to vote.

It is not an exit poll, as it is not based on in-person interviews conducted at polling locations. Instead, AP VoteCast uses a combination of mail, phone and online research to meet voters where they are — increasingly, that’s casting a ballot before Election Day by mail, absentee or via in-person early voting. 

Read more

AP VoteCast is a survey of more than 1,890 New Hampshire voters who were taking part in the Republican primary and 873 Democratic primary voters. The survey is conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Read More

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are looking toward a general election matchup against Trump as they rally for abortion rights in Virginia.

“He’s betting we won’t hold him responsible,” Biden said to a crowd of hundreds of cheering supporters, referring to Trump’s Supreme Court nominees who paved the way for overturning Roe v. Wade. “He’s betting you’re going to stop caring.”

“But guess what?” he added. “I’m betting he’s wrong. I’m betting you won’t forget.”

The rally came the same day that New Hampshire voters were heading to the polls for the first-in-the-nation primary. In a reflection of the importance that Democrats are putting on abortion this year, Biden and Harris were joined by their spouses — the first time the four of them have appeared together since the 2024 campaign began.

“The person most responsible for taking away this freedom in America is Donald Trump,” he said.

More than 8 in 10 approve of his economic leadership, according to AP VoteCast. And around 8 in 10 approve of how he’s handling the student debt issue. About 6 in 10 approve of his approach to immigration. When it comes to the ongoing conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, however, only about half approve.

▶ Read more about AP VoteCast.

Read More

WASHINGTON — About half of GOP voters are very or somewhat concerned that Trump is too extreme to win the general election, according to AP VoteCast. Only about one-third say the same about Haley.

▶ Read more about AP VoteCast.

WASHINGTON — About 4 in 10 Republican voters identify immigration as the most important issue facing the U.S. By contrast, 3 in 10 Republican voters say the economy is their priority, according to AP VoteCast.

About 7 in 10 say immigrants do more to hurt the country than help it. And 8 in 10 favor building a wall along the southern border.

▶ Read more about AP VoteCast.

WASHINGTON — The participation of undeclared voters in New Hampshire means that the candidates are facing a different electorate than they did in Iowa last week. More than 4 in 10 GOP primary voters are not affiliated with a party, compared with about 2 in 10 in the Democratic primary, according to AP VoteCast.

▶ Read more about AP VoteCast.

Read More

Canada’s government is preparing for the possibility that Donald Trump could reach the White House again and the “uncertainty” that would bring, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.

Speaking at a Cabinet retreat, Trudeau said that Trump “represents uncertainty. We don’t know exactly what he is going to do.” He said that his government was able to manage Trump previously by showing that Canada and the U.S. can create economic growth on both sides of the border.

Trump is eyeing a win in New Hampshire’s Republican primary on Tuesday, which would be his second straight victory in his quest for the 2024 GOP nomination after a commanding triumph in Iowa.

Trudeau’s Cabinet has been discussing the Nov. 5 presidential election at its retreat in Montreal.

“We made it through the challenges represented by the Trump administration seven years ago, for four years, where we put forward the fact that Canada and the U.S. do best when we do it together,” Trudeau said.

▶ This is an excerpt from a full story. Continue reading here.

DERRY, N.H. — Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips was spotted earlier in the day shaking the hands of poll workers and voters at a school gymnasium in Derry.

The Minnesota congressman entered the race in October in an event outside New Hampshire’s statehouse, saying, “It is time for the torch to be passed to a new generation of American leaders.”

Phillips is highly unlikely to wrest the Democratic presidential nomination away from Biden, even if the president suffers an embarrassing loss Tuesday in a state where he’s not even on the ballot. Still, his run offers a symbolic challenge to national Democrats trying to project the idea that there is no reason to doubt the president’s electability.

Self-help author Marianne Williamson is also seeking the Democratic nomination.

Read More

LONDONDERRY, N.H. — Trump is predicting that Haley will likely have a “big loss” in New Hampshire.

Speaking at a polling site Tuesday afternoon, Trump insisted Haley wasn’t a threat to his campaign and said she is free to continue challenging him for the GOP nomination.

“I don’t care if she stays in. Let her do whatever she wants,” he said. “It doesn’t matter.”

He said he wouldn’t comment on whether he’d spoken to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and whether he would consider him as his running mate. “I just can’t comment on that,” he said.

BOW, N.H. — Democrat Durwood Sargent, 79, cast a write-in vote for Biden on Tuesday and said he’d be excited to support him in the general election.

He said he wasn’t offended that the president kept his name off the ballot to comply with the Democratic National Committee’s new primary calendar that bumped New Hampshire from its first-in-the-nation spot.

“It’s not a big deal. They’ve made a big deal out of it. The president’s got a country to run,” he said.

Sargent said he’s “absolutely” excited to support Biden if he’s the nominee in November.

“He’s done tremendous stuff for this country,” he said. “In particular, he’s the first president to stand with striking workers.”

BOW, N.H. — Linda Kelly, 46, an independent voter and stay-at-home mom, said she voted for Haley.

“I’m not far left or far right. She’s a little bit to the right, but much closer to the middle than any of the other choices,” she said outside a community center.

Kelly sighed heavily when asked who she would support if the general election is a rematch between Trump and Biden.

“I don’t like either of the choices. I probably would lean to Trump just because the economy was better (when he was in office),” she said.

CONCORD, N.H. — Voting across the state was going smoothly with steady turnout into the early afternoon, according to Secretary of State spokesperson Anna Sventek.

Assistant Attorney General Brendan O’Donnell, head of the department’s Election Law Unit, agreed, saying it was a “great morning” with “no major issues.”

O’Donnell said his office was dealing with “typical complaints” from some voters who were affiliated with one party and wanted to vote in the other party’s primary. Such complaints come in every year, he said. Registered Democrats or Republicans who wanted to switch their party affiliation for this election would have had to do so by a deadline in October.

There were also some isolated issues with accessible voting machines and electioneering in polling locations that were being resolved, he said.

Read More

The weather for New Hampshire’s primary has been much kinder to voters than the record-setting cold last week for Iowa’s caucuses.

Temperatures in New Hampshire on Tuesday started out in the low 20s and reached 30s by early afternoon, much warmer than the last few days when temperatures struggled to get out of the teens. Some light snow was possible Tuesday night, around the time that polls close.

Iowa’s Jan. 15 vote was the lowest-turnout caucuses in a quarter-century. The high temperature in the capital city, Des Moines, that day was 1 degree Fahrenheit, with the temperature falling to minus-17 by sundown.

HAMPTON, N.H. — Nikki Haley is vowing to stay in the race even if Donald Trump wins New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation GOP primary.

The former U.N. ambassador has focused considerable resources in New Hampshire, hoping to capitalize on the state’s independent streak as she looks for an upset or at least a tight loss that could dent Trump’s continued domination of Republican politics.

“I’m running against Donald Trump, and I’m not going to talk about an obituary,” Haley told reporters at a polling site in Hampton.

Regardless of how New Hampshire goes, she says, she plans to be in the race for South Carolina’s Feb. 24 primary.

“This has always been a marathon. It’s never been a sprint,” she said.

Read More

The AP does not make projections or name apparent or likely winners. If our race callers cannot definitively say a candidate has won, we do not engage in speculation. The AP did not call the closely contested race in 2000 between George W. Bush and Al Gore – we stood behind our assessment that the margin in Florida made it too close to say who won.

Only when the AP is fully confident a race has been won – defined most simply as the moment a trailing candidate no longer has a path to victory – will we make a call. Many races are won on election night, but it’s not uncommon for it to take a few days – and in rare instances, a few weeks – to reach that point. In the 2020 presidential election, AP declared Joe Biden the winner four days after Election Day – at 11:26 a.m. ET on Saturday, Nov. 7.

Read more: https://apnews.com/ap-race-calls-faq

Nikki Haley was flanked by New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, a 2022 Senate candidate, as she greeted supporters and voters at a polling site at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton. She expressed optimism for New Hampshire’s primary results and said she deserved to be in the race.

“I didn’t get here because of luck. I got here because I outworked and outsmarted all the rest of those fellas,” she said.

1 of 4 | 

Republican presidential candidate former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, center, walks with N.H. Gov. Chris Sununu, left, and retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc, right, Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, before speaking with members of the media near a polling site at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, N.H. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Read More

2 of 4 | 

Republican presidential candidate former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, left, faces reporters while standing with retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc, right, Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, near a polling site at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, N.H. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Read More

3 of 4 | 

Republican presidential candidate former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, center, and N.H. Gov. Chris Sununu, behind right, greet people, Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, near a polling site at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, N.H. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Read More

4 of 4 | 

Supporters of Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley cheer as voters enter a polling site to cast their ballots in the New Hampshire presidential primary in Manchester, N.H., Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Read More

HAMPTON, N.H. — Pat Sheridan, a Republican from Hampton, said he voted for Trump “because he did a really good job the first time.”

“We need a businessman, not bureaucrats,” said Sheridan, a 63-year-old engineer.

He said the most important issue to him was the economy. “Everything‘s just really bad right now,” he said.

If Trump returns to the White House, Sheridan hopes he will be more careful about choosing his Cabinet members and should bring in better advisers.

“I think he listened to a lot of people he shouldn’t have listened to,” he said.