|
Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 16:33:53 GMT -5
Voters line up for the polls to open to cast their ballots in the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary in Manchester, New Hampshire. Photograph: David Goldman/AP Volunteers check voters identification at the St Anthony’s Community Center during voting in the New Hampshire presidential primary election in Manchester, New Hampshire. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 16:35:21 GMT -5
(The Guardian) In the final hours before polls opened, Nikki Haley held a rally with supporters at a swanky new hotel in Salem, a suburb in New Hampshire. “We’ve got a lot on the line here,” Haley told the crowd, which packed a chandeliered ballroom, and spilled into the lobby. Making her closing pitch, she told supporters: If you go to the polls tomorrow – and take five people with you – and you commit to getting us back on track, I will spend every single day proving to you that you made a good decision.In her remarks, Haley attempted to showcase the breadth of her appeal, pushing back on Donald Trump’s accusations that she’s relying on moderates and liberals to boost her campaign. She pointed into the crowd at Don Bolduc, a combat veteran who backed Haley after losing a Trump-endorsed bid for Senate in 2022 during which he claimed the 2020 election had been stolen. He later tried to reverse those claims in the general election, but it was seen as a factor in his loss to Democratic senator, Maggie Hassan. “He’s as conservative as they get,” Haley beamed. And then she pointed to the state’s Republican governor, Chris Sununu, who has escorted her across the state for the last week. He’s a “moderate”, she noted. Left unsaid was that he is one of Trump’s few prominent Republican critics. Introducing Haley in Salem, Sununu reminded the crowd that since Trump was elected in 2016, Republicans had lost the House, Senate and the White House. He said New Hampshire Republicans had fared poorly too, with several of Trump’s allies in the state losing their elections in the 2022 midterms. “Hey Donald Trump, where the F is the ‘red wave,’” he said. “Give me a break.”
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 16:37:02 GMT -5
(The Guardian) 'See y'all in South Carolina': Haley campaign says she's 'not going anywhere'Nikki Haley’s campaign has insisted she isn’t “going anywhere” in a memo on Tuesday that appeared to push back against suggestions that she could drop out of the Republican primary race if she loses in New Hampshire tonight. The memo by Haley’s campaign manager, Betsy Ankney, accuses the “political class and the media” of wanting to “throw up their hands” and to give Donald Trump a “coronation”. “That isn’t how this works,” she writes. -- We’ve heard multiple members of the press say New Hampshire is ‘the best it’s going to get’ for Nikki due to Independents and unaffiliated voters being able to vote in the Republican primary. The reality is that the path through Super Tuesday includes more states than not that have this dynamic.She notes that South Carolina has no party registration, meaning that anyone can vote in the Republican primary if they have not already voted in the Democrat primary on 3 February. Eleven of the 16 Super Tuesday states have “open or semi-open primaries”, she says, adding that after Super Tuesday, “we will have a very good picture of where this race stands … Until then, everyone should take a deep breath.”
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 16:38:38 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Asked if she would drop out should Donald Trump beat her by double digits in New Hampshire, Nikki Haley said that she has “never done what he tells me to do”. She added: I’m running against Donald Trump. And I’m not going to talk about an obituary.A memo by Haley’s campaign manager earlier today appeared to be a direct response to a Trump campaign memo on Sunday that suggested tonight’s results could prompt her to exit the race. The Trump campaign memo, written by the former president’s advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, argued that Haley faces only two options if she loses in New Hampshire: to drop out and back Trump, or to be prepared to be “absolutely DEMOLISHED and EMBARASSED in her home state of South Carolina”.
Windham high school in Windham, New Hampshire, is a flurry of activity right now, with warmly dressed voters scurrying from their cars to the warmth of the voting booths inside. Tina Lorenz, who is wearing a white puffer jacket with a series of red accessories – “I’m being patriotic,” she said – has been a Donald Trump supporter since 2016. “He is representing the American people. He is not out for himself. He’s not out for political gain. He’s not out for financial reasons. He doesn’t need money, he doesn’t need fame and fortune. He already has all of that,” Lorenz, 63, said. -- He is out there for the average person. And that’s what’s happening, we’ve become so polarized, that there’s nobody out there for just regular people.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 16:39:46 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Diana Jeans voted for Nikki Haley this morning in Windham, a small town less than 10 miles from the New Hampshire-Massachusetts border. “She is down to earth. She’s compassionate, and she’s for the American people. Truly. It’s not about Nikki, it’s about the American people,” Jeans said. She said Donald Trump is the opposite. -- I think that he has a very large ego, and he is a little bit of a narcissist. And people like that have themselves as their best interest, more than the people. And ‘Make America Great Again’ didn’t happen the first time. Why would it happen now?If Trump does end up being the Republican nominee, Jeans said she wasn’t sure if she would vote for him, although she said she would “definitely not” cast her vote for Biden.
Dean Phillips, the Democratic congressman from Minnesota who is mounting a long shot primary campaign against Joe Biden, rocked up at the Windham high school polling location on Tuesday morning to shake the hands of some New Hampshire voters. He was well received, even by a woman holding a ‘Trump 2024’ sign, and Phillips seemed unfazed when he saw a man holding a ‘Write-in Biden’ placard. After an internal Democratic party feud Biden’s name is not on the ballot in New Hampshire, but a campaign has started to write the president’s name anyway. Inside, Phillips engaged with some volunteers from the Windham Lions, a charity organization which helps people in the community. The Lions are selling cookies – the molasses one is the bestseller so far – to raise money.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 16:40:50 GMT -5
Tina Lorenz, right, and Ed Schoen, behind, outside the polling place at Windham High School in Windham, N.H. Photograph: Michael Dwyer/AP Democratic candidate for President and Minnesota Representative Dean Phillips greets voters during the New Hampshire Primary at a voting site at Windham High School in Windham, New Hampshire. Photograph: Amanda Sabga/UPI/REX/Shutterstock
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 17:11:34 GMT -5
(The Guardian) There was a steady flow of voters at Bicentennial elementary school in Nashua, New Hampshire. At the snowy school entrance, a few people waved signs encouraging voters to write-in Joe Biden’s name in the Democratic primary; there were also a couple of Trump supporters holding his signs on the Republican side. Voters lined up inside a school hall decorated with the national flags of various countries as election officials and police looked on. A grey T-shirt draped over a partition said: “NH proudly voting first since 1920.” Emerging from the hall Rita Case, 78, a retired IT worker, admitted that she had wanted to vote for Ron DeSantis in the Republican primary. She said: I like the things that DeSantis believes in and there would not be the chaos and division that might come with Bozo, whose mouth is his worst enemy.But with the Florida governor having dropped out on Sunday, Case switched to Trump anyway. She explained: He can keep people in their place and take care of the border and not let other countries walk all over us. The chaos and the ‘uh, well’ comes in second.As for Joe Biden, she offered: “He’s done a few good things but he’s too weak. I don’t like a lot of the Democrat beliefs.”
In Nashua, New Hampshire, Patricia Hemenway, 55, a production planner, is a registered independent and voted for Nikki Haley in the Republican race. “Because I’m voting against Donald Trump,” she said simply. Asked about her objections to Trump, Hemenway summed up: Everything. Absolutely everything. I’m a military brat; my father served for 26 years. I will have to say the January 6 thing was absolutely revolting to me. I find him revolting. I find a lot of his followers scary.If the presidential election is a Biden v Trump rematch, she would support the Democrat. “He’s a bit old but, if that’s the only alternative, I’m voting for the lesser of two evils at this point.”
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 17:12:50 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Mary Riddell, 64, a retired teacher, wrote in Joe Biden’s name at the polls in Bicentennial elementary school in Nashua, New Hampshire. She said: He’s a good, strong Democrat with democratic ideals. America’s already a fabulous country. We’re doing great the way it is. I believe in public education, believe in teaching history correctly, believe in having access to books, believe in sharing the wealth to everyone in our country, believe in welcoming immigrants and, I just believe in doing what’s right.Riddell did not consider voting for Dean Phillips or Marianne Williamson. “They’re great people, they have good messages but we’ve got to rally behind Joe Biden and make sure that Trump doesn’t return for another four years because it was an angry, chaotic time in our country and we can’t go back to that.” How did Riddell feel about having to write in Biden’s name rather than cast a traditional vote? “I’m pretty strong, I’m pretty brave, I can write a name in. If that’s what’s expected of us to preserve our democracy, then we can rise to the challenge and do that.” Riddell said she understood the logic of moving New Hampshire down the primary electoral calendar. “I would like it to be more inclusive of different peoples, of different races, of different genders, of different ethnic groups, of different political persuasions. New Hampshire’s a great state, a lovely state, but not representative of the rest of the country. -- Sometimes things have to change. We’ve gone through a lot of changes. The world’s going through changes. We can write in somebody and it’s time. It’s good that South Carolina is going to have a chance. Let other states that are just more ethnically diverse have a chance because that’s what our country is becoming and we welcome it.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 17:15:54 GMT -5
(The Guardian) In Nashua, New Hampshire, Vincent Ranucci, 78, a retired lawyer wearing a Boston Red Sox baseball cap, is an independent voter and wrote in Biden’s name. He explained: “He’s a good president. He’s got a good head on his shoulders and wants to do the right thing. No personality quirks. -- I’ve always liked him. He’s not perfect like anybody else. I wish the border would be secured better than it is, and they’re going to have to fix that. However, unfortunately, with our Congress and our parties, no matter what you want to do, you’ve got to get it through them and they fuss and they try to tie different things together that shouldn’t be. They should take care of the border issue and do Ukraine separately. But that’s what Joe’s up against.Ranucci, who has lived in New Hampshire since 1989, was untroubled by having to write Biden’s name by hand on the ballot paper. -- That’s fine. I don’t care much about primaries or who’s first and all that other stuff? It’s all politics, it’s all money. New Hampshire makes a lot of money on this, I’m sure. Good for advertising New Hampshire so good for them. I don’t care where we’re first or second or whatever just as long as we have the system and we use it.
Polls show Donald Trump well ahead in New Hampshire. Even if Nikki Haley pulls off an upset here, there’s a sense that the result would only prolong an inevitable Trump-Biden rematch. There were no debates in the run-up to the primary. After Iowa, Haley refused to debate unless Trump was on stage. Two scheduled debates were dropped. If yard signs are a traditional measure of enthusiasm for a candidate about to break through, the conspicuous lack of them is telling. In their absence, many voters here have complained that the battle for their vote is mostly playing out in ads. Tens of millions of dollars have been spent flooding the airwaves and filling their mailboxes. Some voters said they receive up to 10 pieces of campaign literature in the mailbox each day. It’s enough to make any voter say good riddance. Even Haley admitted as much in her primary eve remarks: “You’re excited because you won’t have to watch any more commercials. You won’t have to see the mail and the text messages will stop.”
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 17:16:50 GMT -5
A supporter of Donald Trump holds signs near a voting site at Londonderry high school in Londonderry, New Hampshire, on Tuesday. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA Voters fill out their ballots at a polling location at Bedford high school in Bedford, New Hampshire. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 17:17:56 GMT -5
(The Guardian) There wasn’t much of a wait to vote at the old armory-turned-community center just steps from the New Hampshire statehouse that was one of the polling places for downtown Concord. Voters got in and out quickly, passing supporters of Democrat Marianne Williamson, Republican Donald Trump, and the write-in campaign for Joe Biden on today’s ballot. Cinde Warmington, the lone Democrat on New Hampshire’s executive council and a candidate for governor, was there to support the write-in effort for Biden. Holding a sign reading “Write-in Joe Biden”, Warmington said: It is so important that he comes out of here in New Hampshire, with the country knowing that we are 100% behind our president. We need to re-elect him, keep Donald Trump out of the White House and to protect our fundamental freedom, like access to reproductive healthcare, which is under assault in the state as well as states across the country.New Hampshire typically holds the first primary in the nation, but will now vote later after the Democratic National Committee (DNC) changed the schedule, and Biden has not endorsed the write-in campaign. Beyond being a show of support for him, Warmington said it was a way to remind Democratic leadership of the Granite state’s importance. Warmington said: We were first and we are still first, and regardless of what the DNC does, we will always be the first-in-the-nation primary.The DNC rule change means Biden is not appearing on the Democratic ballot, though Williamson and Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips are. Nonetheless, reports emerged yesterday that New Hampshire voters were receiving robocalls in which a voice that sounded like the president told them not to vote today, prompting the Biden-Harris campaign to call for an investigation. It is “absolutely disgraceful that anyone would try to suppress the vote”, Armington said. -- I hope that they find out who it is and prosecute them to the full extent of the law.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 17:19:32 GMT -5
(The Guardian) “I’m a die hard Republican, and I voted for president Trump,” declared 73-year-old Mark Gonyer as he left the polling station in downtown Concord. -- I don’t like some of the things he did, but out of all the candidates, he’s the best one.There are, of course, far fewer candidates in the race than there were just a few months ago. Florida governor Ron DeSantis dropped out two days ago, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie quit before the Iowa caucuses and Vivek Ramaswamy exited after performing poorly in the Hawkeye state. The one candidate left who could beat Trump in New Hampshire today – despite his big lead in recent polls – is former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, but Gonyer wasn’t interested. “She’s got some good points,” he conceded, but said, based on his experience with female politicians nationwide and in New Hampshire, he didn’t think Haley was up to the task. “I would give her a shot but look at Hillary Clinton, look at our vice-president we had now,” said Gonyer, who delivers auto parts and rebuilds old tractors. “She hasn’t done anything.”
Martin Janoschek, 57, is a Republican-leaning independent who did not want to vote for Donald Trump, and thus voted for Nikki Haley. “I know she’s a longshot,” said Janoschek, who is unemployed. -- I think she’s a pretty common-sensical person, from what I heard.But if it comes down to Trump or Joe Biden in the November general election, as polls indicate it most likely will, Janoschek will probably vote for the former president over the current one, even though he doesn’t like his style. -- “He’s a little bit bombastic,” he said.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 17:21:12 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Law student AhLana Ames did not vote for a person, but for a word: “ceasefire”. She used her Democratic ballot to take part in a campaign to write in the term to protest the Biden administration’ support of Israel’s invasion of Gaza. “I’m against war in general. I don’t think what’s going on in Israel is particularly just,” the 23-year-old said. -- I’m not particularly pleased with how Joe Biden is handling it, but wanted to vote Democratic.The president has been under increasing pressure from the left for his administration’s defense of Israel, which staged a bloody invasion of Gaza following Hamas’s 7 October terrorist attack and mass kidnapping. An estimated 25,000 Palestinians have died in the incursion, but the Biden administration has generally refrained from openly criticizing Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, and allowed Israel to buy US weapons, leading some progressives to say they will not vote for Biden again. Ames plans to soon move to Pennsylvania, a swing state Biden will likely need to win to get a second term in office. While she may look into supporting a third party candidate, she concedes that would likely be pointless, and she will probably end up voting for Biden again. She added: I just know I’ll never vote for a Republican candidate.
Andres Hulfachor, 21, a student in Nashua, New Hampshire, voted for Donald Trump. He said: He can bring a better America. I wasn’t too happy with what Joe Biden did. I feel like honestly this country has gotten a little bit soft, and he can bring back that hard working culture. There’s a lot of people that have that victim mindset now since Joe Biden has been president. Donald Trump can give out that winning mindset that we need to be a country that other countries look at and don’t really laugh at. On foreign relations, Joe Biden didn’t do a good job at all. Donald Trump got a lot of respect from other countries. That’s very important considering what’s going on right now around the world.Hulfachor would also be fine with Nikki Haley as the nominee: I don’t think she’s a bad candidate at all. If she ends up becoming president, I wouldn’t be disappointed at all. She’s a great lady, speaks well, has a lot of good ideas. I know my parents are fans of Nikki Haley too but I have Trump a touch in front of her. But like I said, if she wins, I won’t be too disappointed.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 17:22:45 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump and Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene made an appearance at a polling place in Londonderry, New Hampshire, as voting is under way in the state’s primary. Greene helped stomp for Trump, declaring on social media that the primary was “over” and that “Donald Trump is our nominee”. When asked if she had a final message for New Hampshire voters, Greene said, in part: “I think the big message is that this is a referendum on the Republican party and it’s been coming. Republican voters…are sick and tired of uni-party Republicans, the neo-con establishment wing of the party.”
Voters arrived at a steady pace to cast their ballots in Derry, home to the largest polling place in the country. In a sign of the town’s importance to Haley’s hopes of a David v Goliath-sized upset on Tuesday night, the candidate dropped by to thank volunteers. Steve Pearson, who represents Derry in the state legislature, was holding the lone Haley sign when I spoke to him outside of Pinkerton Academy high school. A raucous group of Trump campaign volunteers lined the sidewalk with signs next to a scattered group holding signs for Democratic candidates Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson. On the opposite side, a handful of people urged voters to “write in” Joe Biden’s name. Just after midday, Jim MacEachern, a Republican who serves on the town council, said 3,700 people had already cast their ballots. Roughly 700 people chose a Democratic ballot while 3,000 took a Republican one. If the pace keeps, and the weather keeps cooperating, he predicted the polling booth would see as many as 12,000 people by the end of the day. “For a primary, that’s pretty damn good,” MacEachern said. The secretary of state had predicted record-breaking turnout among Republicans, and Derry’s strong participation is a sign New Hampshire might be on track to do that. “A high turnout will bode well for her,” Pearson told me. “Because the diehard Trump Trump folks are coming out either way. It’s the independents, it’s the Republicans who are looking to find a candidate that they think is electable” who will make the difference. "For too long we’ve treated the primary as the prize when the prize is the White House,” he said. “You needed a candidate who is electable at a national scale.”
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Jan 23, 2024 17:23:52 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Jessica Bastien, an undeclared voter in Derry, showed up to cast her ballot for Donald Trump wearing a top with the former president’s mugshot and the words: “NOT GUILTY”. Bastien is undaunted by the four criminal charges and 91 felony counts he’s facing as he marches toward the Republican nomination. In her view, each count is baseless and she is hopeful he will ultimately be acquitted. “I support his love for the country. His policies. His truthfulness and always sticking by what he says and protecting the US citizens first,” she said. Asked what would happen if Trump loses, she said Biden was too weak to win and wouldn’t contemplate any other outcome. In the unlikely event Trump is dethroned in the primary, she is not sure what she would do in November. “I think both parties are corrupted and have their ways of lying to us,” she said, adding that Trump’s movement doesn’t need the support of anti-Trump Republicans to win. “I’m not really worried about that,” she said. “I don’t think we lost anything. I think we lost the people that we should have lost a long time ago.”
Congressman Byron Donalds, a Trump supporter, dropped by the polling place in Derry to thank campaign volunteers for their support. He posed for photos and thanked supporters who said they can’t wait for him to run for president one day. Donalds has called on Haley to drop out of the race if she loses to Trump in New Hampshire on Tuesday. “Nikki Haley’s got to show she can win a state. And this is the only one in my view that she’s got a shot in,” he told yours truly. “This is the end of the line for her.” Donalds also insisted that Trump was “on it” mentally, after Haley questioned his mental acuity. Trump appeared to confuse her for Nancy Pelosi during a recent speech. Afterward, she added a segment of her stump speech raising the issue of Trump’s age and fitness for office. Donalds said he was with Trump on Monday night and found him unchanged mentally or physically. “I know President Trump spent time with him, like saw him yesterday, saw him last night. It’s not even the same situation, not even the same ballpark,” he told me.
|
|