We finally know the result of the New Hampshire primary. They just called it for former President Donald Trump, who won, as anticipated. We'll have to wait a little bit to see what the final count is.
As we reported, Haley had said that she wouldn't be dropping out even if she lost when she was on Fox earlier in the day on Tuesday. In fact, she had a contentious interview where she accused them of being for Trump and said that she was going to stay in. It remains to be seen if she holds to that as we get closer to the South Carolina primary and the final numbers from New Hampshire might factor into her decision. One would think she wouldn't want to be embarrassed, but if it's close enough (whatever that might be), she might convince herself she has a chance.
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Now the exit polls are out, and CNN is reporting a fascinating difference between who voted for Trump and who voted for Haley.
CNN's exit polls show that 70% of Nikki Haley voters are NOT registered Republicans. pic.twitter.com/TCq5TH2CAL
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 24, 2024
Trump has 70 percent registered Republicans, 27 percent undeclareds.
Haley is the reverse — her voters are 70 percent undeclareds and 27 percent Republicans. In the GOP primary.
Here's a sample of a guy saying he made a strategic vote for Haley, though he wouldn't vote for her in the general, and you can tell from what he says he's on the left.
Nikki Haley voter in New Hampshire:
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 24, 2024
"It was a strategic vote… I wouldn't vote for her in a general election. A vote for Haley helps diminish Trump's influence." pic.twitter.com/jpS4bRzmiH
He did it deliberately to ding Trump and cast a vote for "democracy." The MSNBC interviewer said that was certainly emblematic of conversations that he had throughout the day. So that bears out the tactic going on here.
If we want to get a sense of how many may have done this, the undeclareds here in a "GOP" primary are perhaps instructive. This seems to me like a huge amount of undeclared people, so obviously more confirmation of the tactic MSNBC was seeing.
CNN New Hampshire early exit poll
— NewsWire (@NewsWire_US) January 23, 2024
Party registration among Republican primary voters
Registered Republican 49%
Registered undeclared 47%
Unregistered before today 3%
Are you part of the 'MAGA' movement
Yes 32%
No 64%
A memo implied that the Haley team were exploiting this strategy, as we noted, to rely on open primaries and undeclared voters in the future, as they did in New Hampshire.
Memo from Haley team implies they’re willing to fight through Super Tuesday
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) January 23, 2024
…and rely on independents:
“Eleven of the 16 Super Tuesday states have open or semi-open primaries. Of the 874 delegates available…roughly two thirds are in states with open or semi-open primaries.” pic.twitter.com/wnnayyqcMs
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