Featured Photo by Kayla Walker
Story by Jenene Grover
The New Hampshire primary on Jan. 23 fared dimly on Gov. Nikki Haley’s campaign as she trailed 11 points behind Former President Donald Trump.
Even with her second loss following the Iowa caucus, Haley vowed to stay in the race until at least Super Tuesday on March 5. She faces her own constituents in her home state of South Carolina next on Feb. 24.
“Now, Nikki Haley is continuing forward. She is totally banking on the South Carolina – her home state – the South Carolina primary,” said Kent Syler, a MTSU political science professor. “That is a really a pretty high risk political strategy for Gov. Haley because nobody wants to be embarrassed in their home state.”
In New Hampshire, a state with 40% independently-aligned voters, Haley won over six in 10 independents. However, Trump came away with two-thirds of the Republican voters.
“If there was one thing that maybe causes concern for him, it would be more a general election issue, potentially, not having totally unified moderate Republicans,” said Syler about Trump.
The next caucus for Trump is in Nevada on Feb. 8, where Haley will not be present on the ballot that assigns delegates. Haley is only present on a primary ballot two days before, where she would win nothing for a nomination.
“Donald Trump did what he needed to do, and it’s going to be very, very tough for Nikki Haley to continue on,” said Syler. “Former President Trump has now won in Iowa, won in New Hampshire, and I think overall he had a good night.”
Trump is already polling much higher than Haley in South Carolina. Each state poll shows Trump as winning the primaries.
“This is a unique situation where you have a former president running in the primaries. He, in essence, is kind of a de facto incumbent. Generally. . . incumbent presidents get the benefit of the doubt,” said Syler.
President Joe Biden, even though he is missing from some ballots, is expected to easily win the Democratic nomination due to his incumbency.
“It’s a little rough figuring out the consensus of where it’s going to go, but I believe it’s trending towards a Biden-Trump rematch,” said Ravel Pirouznia Jr., Co-Chair of the Young Democratic Socialists of America.
New Hampshire Democratic voters came together last week to write in Biden on the ballot where he was not present.
“I would say that Donald Trump still has a grip on the Republican party. He’s definitely flexing his muscles in that party,” said Pirouznia Jr. “It seems that being as Joe Biden ran as a write-in candidate, it looked like he also did the same thing with having enough power to actually win it.”
Tennessee is a heavily Republican state with a large Trump supporter base, and Trump has dominated the polls. However, even with these earlier primary results, they do not necessarily determine the outcome of the election in every state.
“Iowa and New Hampshire are important not because it’s a large electorate, not because it’s an electorate that is representative of the country demographically,” Syler said. “It’s important because it’s early.”
As the primaries inch closer to Tennessee, voters become more disinterested, especially seeing Trump win in the elections and the polls again and again.
“I’m very interested in politics and election season. I like to stay up to date and have a little more knowledge,” said Pirouznia Jr. “A lot of the time, you think that these things don’t matter because it doesn’t affect them. It definitely affects them more on a federal level because they’re, of course, the head of our country.”
When asked to comment on the New Hampshire primary results, MTSU’s Turning Point USA declined to comment.
“Unfortunately, due to TPUSA being registered as a 501(c)(3), we can’t comment specifically on partisan issues,” said Nicholas Del Rosso, President of MTSU’s Turning Point USA.
Jenene Grover is the politics reporter for MTSU Sidelines.
To contact News Editor Alyssa Williams and Assistant News Editor Zoe Naylor, email newseditor@mtsusidelines.com.
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