– [Narrator] The New Hampshire primary is just around the corner. – This is potentially a pivotal moment in the Republican primary. – [Narrator] For Nikki Haley, New Hampshire could be
her best and last chance to persuade voters that
she's a better alternative to Donald Trump. Here's why. The first primary of
the 2024 election season is now a one-on-one battle after Florida governor Ron DeSantis suspended his presidential bid
two days before the election and endorsed former
president Donald Trump. – I can't ask our supporters
to volunteer their time and donate their resources if we don't have a clear path to victory. – [Narrator] The New Hampshire
primary comes off the heels of the Republican caucuses in Iowa, where Trump won by a
record breaking margin, all but cementing his
position as the front runner for the party's nomination. – We wanna thank the great people of Iowa. Thank you. We love you all.
(crowd cheering) – [Narrator] But unlike Iowa, New Hampshire has a more
moderate electorate, and large numbers of independents are allowed to vote in
the state's GOP primary.
– New Hampshire's much
more independent-minded, much more secular. This has always been a state where the electorate
was much more friendly to the appeal of someone like Nikki Haley, who combines a sort of conservative stance on taxes and spending, with conservative
positions on foreign policy and a pitch that's about electability. There's a substantial block of Democratic-leaning independents, who might like to take the nomination away from Donald Trump.
There's a substantial block
of moderate conservatives or conservative-leaning independents. All of these moderate
voters are a potential asset for a candidate like Nikki Haley. – [Narrator] With
DeSantis out of the race, Haley has the opportunity
to present herself as the better and now
only alternative to Trump. – It has been the conventional wisdom that the only way Trump could be beaten is if he were one-on-one
with a single alternative, giving voters that binary choice, either it's Trump or it's not.
– Do we want more of the same or do you want something different? And more of the same isn't just Joe Biden, more of the same is also Donald Trump. – [Narrator] Haley believes
she already has momentum going into the New Hampshire primary. – She has the endorsement
of the very popular Republican governor of New
Hampshire, Chris Sununu, who's been very outspoken against Trump and what he represents. – [Narrator] Haley is
also likely to scoop up some supporters of former
New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, an avid Trump critic who dropped out of the race just days before the Iowa caucuses. However, Trump remains dominant
in polls in New Hampshire and the states to follow
for future primaries. With DeSantis endorsing Trump
after suspending his campaign, the support he was
drawing in New Hampshire will likely go to Trump,
widening his lead. Another decisive victory could
make the former president nearly impossible to stop. – From the perspective
of the Trump campaign, this is already over. You have a lot of Trump's
allies and campaign officials saying, "It's time to unite
the Republican Party." Haley has tried to toe
this very delicate line of, on the one hand, articulating
what she believes are valid criticisms of Trump, while not angering the voters who still think that
Trump was a good president and like him in a lot of ways.
And so for her, it's really
New Hampshire that's do or die. She needs to either win or show that she can come
close to Donald Trump to give her a reason
to keep going forward. – [Narrator] It's still early in the 2024 presidential campaign season, with many more state
primaries and caucuses to go ahead of November's election. But New Hampshire will likely set the tone for another major upcoming task, the South Carolina primary.
– Trump looks very strong
throughout the South, including in South Carolina. We've seen him get huge reception when he's gone down there to campaign. So although it is Nikki
Haley's home state, where she was a popular governor, it's viewed as an uphill battle for all the non-Trump candidates. If Haley is able to come close or defeat Trump in New Hampshire, she really looks like
a much more of a force in this campaign, and it starts to look like a real contest.
Now, she still has an uphill
battle in South Carolina, but at least it looks
like an actual battle. (gentle music).