The latest on the New Hampshire primary and 2024 campaign

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley returned home to South Carolina as she shifted her focus to the state’s primary, telling a crowd her GOP rival Donald Trump “pitched a fit” in his New Hampshire victory speech.

She added that the former president should feel threatened.

The former South Carolina governor fired back at Trump in the first two minutes of her remarks on Wednesday, again highlighting Trump’s gaffe in which he confused Haley for Nancy Pelosi.

Doubling down on calls for Trump to participate in GOP primary debates, Haley said if Trump insists he’d beat her in a cognitive test, he should be willing to confront her one-on-one.

“Bring it, Donald, show me what you got,” Haley said.

President Joe Biden speaks during a United Auto Workers' political convention on Wednesday, January 24, in Washington, DC.

President Joe Biden officially turned the page Wednesday to the general election, looking ahead to a race against former President Donald Trump that will test his ability to reenergize key corners of his winning coalition in a race his team views as nothing less than a fight for democracy itself.

The campaign believes results from New Hampshire’s primary were enough to indicate Trump would be the Republican nominee. As the starting gun fired, the contours of Biden’s efforts and challenges in reconvening critical voting blocs that helped propel him into office were coming into sharper view.

Biden’s path to victory will not be an easy one. His campaign advisers readily acknowledge the race this year will be exceedingly close and say their efforts will accelerate over the coming weeks. He faces a party that, according to polls, would have preferred a different candidate. And divisions within his coalition, most visibly over the war in Gaza, have increasingly spilled into public view.

On Wednesday, he secured the key backing of the United Auto Workers, which had initially held off endorsing Biden amid concerns about his push toward electric vehicles.

And on Thursday, a pair of events will be aimed at bolstering Biden’s standing on economic issues, which have proven frustratingly difficult for the president to gain traction on over the past year. He will travel to battleground Wisconsin to tout infrastructure investments while his Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will draw a rare contrast with Trump in a major address.

The series of engagements illustrate the opportunities and challenges Biden faces as he enters a contest against an opponent he has openly labeled a threat to democracy, yet whom some polls show with a small nationwide lead.

The first two Republican primary contests of the year have now taken place —the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.

In the current GOP delegate fight, Nikki Haley has a lot of work to do. After winning in Iowa and New Hampshire, former President Donald Trump has 32 delegates to Haley’s 17. Winning the GOP nomination requires at least 1,215 out of 2,429 delegates awarded as part of the primary process.

Here’s a look at the key upcoming primary dates:

February:

March:

Access the full 2024 election calendar.

Former President Donald Trump is expected to be in court on Thursday as E. Jean Carroll’s civil defamation trial against him resumes, according to a court official. 

Trump’s attorneys said in court Monday he wants to testify, but it’s unclear if he will.

The schedule still could change. The judge in the case updated the docket on Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET to state that court would resume Thursday morning.

On Monday, the judge adjourned the trial due to a sick juror. The jury has not heard proceedings since last Thursday.

Republican presidential candidate and former US.President Donald Trump gestures as he takes the stage during his New Hampshire presidential primary election night watch party, in Nashua, New Hampshire, on Tuesday, January 23.

As Republicans begin to fall in line behind former President Donald Trump as their party’s likely nominee, there are deep-seated reservations about his polarizing candidacy — particularly within the Senate GOP.

Many still have fresh memories of the 2021 Capitol attack and had hoped he wouldn’t return to the national scene. Others blame him for their 2022 failure to take back the majority in the midterms and had stayed quiet as the 2024 presidential primary unfolded. 

Yet now Trump is on a glide path to the nomination and remains the most dominant force in GOP politics – something they’re trying to reconcile as they fear that his penchant for controversy and four criminal indictments will sink their chances at keeping the House and taking back the Senate.  

“For him to win the general election, he’s got to start running a general election campaign, which will mean his message is going to have to appeal to those independent voters and moderate Republicans,” said Senate GOP Whip John Thune, the No. 2 Republican who has yet to endorse Trump but said he would back the eventual nominee.

Further, exit polls in New Hampshire underscore other concerns about Trump’s chances in a general election. While Trump dominated with GOP voters in New Hampshire, winning about three-quarters of Republican voters, he struggled with independents and more moderate Granite Staters.

Republicans now fear that Trump would put off those types of independent voters who will be essential to winning battleground House and Senate seats — and that could cost them control of Congress.  “Yes,” one swing-district House Republican said when asked if he believes Trump will cost their party the House. 

Read more about what the Senate GOP is saying about Trump.

Black Voters Matter is set to gather in Charleston, South Carolina, on Thursday to kick off a new campaign and bus tour ahead of the nation’s first Democratic presidential primary in the state.

The voting rights organization said the campaign, “We Fight Back,” is intended to rally Black voters and bring awareness to issues affecting Black communities. Black Voters Matter said it will strategize on how to fight misinformation targeting Black communities and map out how grassroots organizers can arm voters with facts. 

The organization says it will convene in South Carolina because the state will host the first Democratic presidential primary of 2024 on February 3. Early voting is already underway.

Some background: In late 2022, President Joe Biden sent a letter to the Democratic National Convention, urging it to reorder the primary calendar to allow voters of color to cast their votes sooner in the primary process. 

“Black voters in particular have been the backbone of the Democratic Party but have been pushed to the back of the early primary process,” wrote Biden. “It is time to stop taking these voters for granted, and time to give them a louder and earlier vote in the process.” 

Former President Donald Trump participates in a virtual rally at Hotel Fort Des Moines in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 13.

Two very different versions of American Republicans showed up at the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.

Trump has now won more than half the vote in Iowa, a state where the majority of Republican caucusgoers (61%) think most or all abortions should be banned nationwide, and also in New Hampshire, where more than two-thirds of Republican primary voters (67%) oppose such a ban.

In New Hampshire, only a little more than a third of Republican primary voters said they were part of the MAGA movement, referring to the “Make America Great Again” slogan that Trump popularized in 2016. In Iowa, it was nearly half of caucusgoers.

Also in Iowa, a third of Republicans don’t think he’d be fit for office if he’s convicted of a crime. In New Hampshire, 42% of primary voters feel that way.

Read more about these different voters. Turnout was down in Iowa but set a new record in New Hampshire.

While the primary contests in Iowa and New Hampshire can be critical for giving candidates early momentum — those two states represent a small number of delegates.

It’s not until Super Tuesday on March 5, seven weeks after the first Americans pick a candidate in Iowa, that a consequentially large number of Republican delegates is at stake.

Winning the GOP nomination requires at least 1,215 out of 2,429 delegates awarded as part of the primary process. Shortly after CNN projected that Trump would win New Hampshire, Trump had 32 delegates compared with Haley’s 17.

In 13 primaries and three caucuses, 874 delegates, 36% of the Republican total, will be up for grabs, including in California, the state with the most Republican delegates. But we still aren’t even halfway through the primaries.

Below, explore how many delegates are at stake in every contest.

Biden speaks to United Auto Workers members at the UAW's Community Action Program legislative conference in Washington, DC, on Wednesday.

For the second time in as many days, President Joe Biden was interrupted by protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza during a campaign event.

Biden, who was speaking to the United Autoworkers Community Action Program Conference in Washington, DC, was accepting the union’s endorsement for president when a protester in the audience unfurled a Palestinian flag, shouting, “Call for a humanitarian ceasefire!”

The protesters, who were escorted out of the room, were quickly drowned out by chants of “UAW!” from the crowd. 

Biden’s remarks on abortion Tuesday were also interrupted by protesters calling for a ceasefire — though the demonstrators staggered their disruptions throughout the president’s remarks, forcing Biden to pause at near-minute intervals throughout.

Interestingly enough, the United Autoworkers Union itself called for a ceasefire in Gaza last month.

Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, speaks at the United Auto Workers conference in Washington, DC, on Wednesday.

The United Auto Workers union endorsed President Joe Biden Wednesday, saying in part that Biden “earned it.”

Fain also made direct comparisons to what former President Donald Trump and Biden have said about unions and the auto industry. He referenced Biden joining members of the UAW in Michigan on the picket line last year in the middle of a strike — a rare move for a sitting president. Fain also talked particularly about the 2019 General Motors strike that occurred when Trump was president. 

“He said nothing. He did nothing, not a damn thing because he doesn’t care about the American worker,” Fain said of Trump. The UAW president also looked ahead to the November general election and told union members they had a choice to elect someone who “supports our cause” or someone who “will divide us.” 

During his remarks at the conference, Biden said that he “could not be more proud or more honored” to receive the union’s endorsement. The president touted his administration’s efforts to work closely with unions, saying that he kept his commitment to be the “most pro-union president ever.”

More context: The endorsement comes as the Biden campaign is making a full pivot to the general election, pointing to Trump’s victory in the Republican primary in New Hampshire Tuesday as a clear sign that he is poised to emerge as the GOP presidential nominee.

The endorsement is the result of a long courtship between the president and union leadership. Although it’s a key endorsement for Biden, the backing from union leadership may not convince all of the rank-and-file to vote for the president in November. Biden won the endorsement of the UAW in the 2020 campaign, even though many rank-and-file members supported Trump.

Read more about the endorsement and what it means for Biden.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley wants to continue her campaign after a bruising loss Tuesday in the New Hampshire Republican primary.

In the current delegate fight, Haley has a lot of work to do. After New Hampshire, former President Donald Trump has 32 delegates to Haley’s 17. In this regard, there is a long way to go. Winning the GOP nomination requires at least 1,215 out of 2,429 delegates awarded as part of the primary process.

In years without an incumbent, like Republicans are experiencing in 2024, the winner frequently does not hit the magic number until May or even June. In 2016 — the first of his three White House runs so far — Trump hit the magic number on May 26.

But he did not win every primary and caucus in 2016. So far in 2024, he has. Haley would need to quickly begin winning contests of her own to eat into his delegate lead. For now, delegates are being awarded proportionally, which means Haley can still win some delegates even when she loses a primary. That changes after March 15, when states can switch to a winner-take-all format.

The next date on the calendar for Republicans are caucuses in Nevada and the US Virgin Islands. In Nevada, only registered Republicans can take part. Haley, who has not filed for the Nevada caucuses, has lost registered Republicans in both Iowa and New Hampshire, according to exit polls. She has also trailed in the polls in South Carolina, which has a much smaller portion of independent voters than New Hampshire, a state Haley just lost.

If Haley is determined to make this a delegate fight, she faces a seriously uphill battle.

Correction: This post has been updated to reflect that the caucuses in the US Virgin Islands are not closed to people registered in other political parties.

Former president Donald Trump greets supporters outside a polling location on Tuesday in Londonderry, New Hampshire.

Bonnie Cote never considered voting for anyone other than former President Donald Trump.

As she stood outside her hometown’s opera house, where Trump held one of his final Granite State campaign rallies earlier this week, the 33-year-old said she was “relieved” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dropped out and that she didn’t know former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley existed until that evening. Though Trump wasn’t necessarily “presidential material,” she said he was braver than anyone else running and felt he was robbed of a second term in 2020.

With the help of voters like Cote, Trump won the New Hampshire primary Tuesday, reinforcing what months of polls, political endorsements, focus groups and the results of the Iowa caucuses have shown: Many GOP voters aren’t interested in an alternative to the former president.

His win, and the thoughts and feelings that motivated the voters that gave it to him, offer sobering lessons to his last remaining major GOP rival.

In more than a dozen interviews, Trump’s backers here described his first term in office as a time of economic prosperity and global peace, dismissed the four criminal indictments against him as attacks from Democrats and, at times, expressed the unfounded view that the 2020 presidential election was stolen due to widespread voter fraud. Many acknowledged his behavior wasn’t what they would like, but he was a known and proven entity, unlike his rivals, they said.

Read more on Trump supporters here.

In this July 2021 photo, White House adviser Cedric Richmond boards Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

A top Biden campaign official was pressed Wednesday on cracks in the Democratic coalition as progressives have repeatedly voiced discontent with President Joe Biden’s stance on the Israel-Hamas war and continued casualties in Gaza.

“We have a very diverse coalition, and we’re going to bring that coalition back together,” Biden campaign national co-chair Cedric Richmond told CNN.

On Tuesday, as Biden made a forceful argument for reproductive rights in Virginia, he was repeatedly interrupted by protesters calling for a ceasefire. Protesters also interrupted Biden’s remarks earlier this month at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. 

“Even in South Carolina, you saw the President treat and listen to protesters with respect. And it’s part of what makes America – America,” Richmond said.

He offered a jab at former President Donald Trump as the Biden campaign dials up a general election contrast: “We allow free speech. We allow others with different opinions to voice that opinion. We don’t silence them. We don’t bully them. We don’t ask people in the crowd to rough them up like President Trump did during his rallies.” 

Biden is taking the conflict “very, very seriously,” Richmond said, though he did not offer insight into how the campaign plans to reach progressive and young voters who are frustrated with the White House’s handling of the war.

“We will continue to push for peace and that we protect innocent lives, wherever they are. And I think that we will, again, talk to the American people about where we are,” he said. 

Nikki Haley waves to the audience as she speaks at a New Hampshire primary night rally, in Concord, New Hampshire, on Tuesday.

Nikki Haley is back home in South Carolina — not to lick her wounds, but to fight on in her bitter duel with Donald Trump.

The day after Haley lost the New Hampshire primary to Trump, Haley campaign officials continue to insist that the plans to compete in the South Carolina primary on February 24 and beyond remain intact.

Even as her campaign team plans for a monthlong fight in South Carolina, officials say Haley is gauging support of donors and taking the temperature of longtime supporters about her path forward. Those private conversations underway today could help influence any decisions as many GOP officials are coalescing around Trump.

As those conversations happen, the tone of her campaign aides mirrors the message from Haley’s campaign manager in a memo that was distributed yesterday while New Hampshire voters were still at the polls: “we aren’t going anywhere.”

Trump did not do well with independents in New Hampshire which further bolsters Haley’s argument that he would lose in the general election, aides said. Haley got the vote of about two-thirds of independent voters in New Hampshire, according to CNN exit polls. 

When it comes to South Carolina specifically, a key piece of the campaign’s strategy to accrue support is an expectation that Trump will overstep the negative attacks, explained one campaign official. They watched Trump angrily go after Haley during his victory speech on Tuesday night and fully expect the ugly attacks to grow more pronounced in the days and weeks ahead. 

Donald Trump speaks at a primary election night party in Nashua, New Hampshire, on January 23.

Donald Trump may have won decisively in New Hampshire Tuesday night, but instead of spending his evening celebrating like he did after the Iowa caucuses, the former president spent his night seething, sources said. 

Hours after the polls closed, Trump continued to rail against Nikki Haley privately and publicly after she declined to drop out of the race.

Publicly, he criticized her speech and her outfit in a post online. Privately, Trump told his aides he was baffled that she was refusing to drop out and grant him the GOP nomination, urging his political aides to up their attacks on her. 

The response was a far cry from Trump’s giddy reaction to the Iowa caucuses, when he congratulated Ron DeSantis and Haley for “having a good time together.” Instead, in New Hampshire Tuesday, Trump warned, “I don’t get too angry, I get even.”

Senate Judiciary Committee member Sen. John Cornyn attends a hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on December 5, 2023 in Washington, DC.

Republican lawmakers are weighing in on the state of the GOP presidential race following former President Donald Trump’s win in New Hampshire.

Here’s what some of them said Wednesday:

GOP Sen. John Cornyn warned Trump that he needs to expand beyond his base. “I think if the president would pick Tim Scott as vice president, I think that would be a really good ticket,” Cornyn, who has endorsed Trump, told CNN’s Manu Raju. “After a primary, there needs to be a broader appeal than just to primary voters. You can’t win with just your own base.” Cornyn added that he thinks it’s time for the party to unify.  

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham chided fellow South Carolinian Nikki Haley over her criticism of Trump and said it was up to her on whether to drop out of the race.  “Well, I’ll leave that up to her. But Trump is in a commanding position in South Carolina. I think, for all practical purposes, the primary is over. She’s done better than anybody in the history of South Carolina and she has a lot to be proud of. But her assessment last night of President Trump, I don’t think would be widely shared in South Carolina,” Graham said. 

Senate Republican Whip John Thune said Trump will need to appeal beyond his base voters if he wants to win the general election in November. Asked by CNN if he is concerned Trump didn’t perform well with moderate and independent voters in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, Thune said: “The campaign probably realizes they’ve got the Republican vote locked up. And for him to win the general election. He’s got to start running a general election campaign, which will mean his message is going to have to appeal to those independent voters and moderate Republicans.”   

Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins says she doesn’t see herself endorsing Trump for president, even if he becomes the eventual Republican nominee. She said she supports Haley staying in the race. “I’m glad to hear last night that Nikki Haley is determined to stay in. And I think the more people see her for her, particularly since she appears to be the only alternative to Donald Trump right now, the more impressed that they will be,” Collins said. 

The United Auto Workers union is expected to endorse President Joe Biden, according to a source familiar and a Michigan Democratic official familiar with the decision – support that could help boost the president with blue-collar and union workers, as well as in the key battleground state of Michigan. 

Biden is set to address UAW members at the group’s conference in Washington, DC, this afternoon, where the endorsement is expected to be announced. The White House and Biden campaign declined to comment.

The expected UAW endorsement comes as the Biden campaign is making a full pivot to the general election, pointing to Donald Trump’s victory in the Republican primary in New Hampshire Tuesday as a clear sign that he is poised to emerge the GOP presidential nominee. 

Biden won the endorsement of the UAW in the 2020 campaign, even though many rank-and-file members supported Trump. And he has continued to cast himself as the most pro-union leader. Earlier this year, he joined members of the UAW in Michigan on the picket line in the middle of a strike – a rare move for a sitting president.

Trump has made appealing to union voters a key part of his political strategy, in no small part by targeting disaffected voters in the Rust Belt who believe the Democratic Party has left them behind.

Packs of menthol cigarettes in 2018.

In the lead up to the South Carolina primary, conservative groups are eyeing the state as a valuable testing ground for messages opposing the US Food and Drug Administration’s proposed menthol cigarette ban, something they hope will chip away at President Joe Biden’s Black vote.

Some context: President Biden is yet to decide on whether to approve the FDA’s proposed ban on menthol cigarettes — the preferred option among Black smokers that is widely available and priced cheaper in Black communities, according to the nonprofit advocacy group, The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Health advocates say the ban would save hundreds of thousands of Black lives, The NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus have endorsed the ban, but it could also be unpopular with some Black voters.

Some civil rights leaders with ties to the tobacco industry have raised concern with the White House that a ban would criminalize menthol cigarettes and lead to an increase in deadly police interactions. However, the proposed menthol ban explicitly states it would solely be aimed at cigarette manufacturers and retailers — not individuals.

Republicans and conservative groups are trying to determine whether leveraging this issue can influence voter behavior and reduce the President’s vote count. 

CNN viewed the ad that’s set to run in the South Carolina market. It shows headlines related to Eric Garner, who died after police held him in an illegal choke hold. Police initially confronted Garner for allegedly selling cigarettes illegally.

The Liberty Policy Foundation, a conservative advocacy group, plans on launching a mid-six figure ad campaign in South Carolina that will roll out on digital platforms first — as soon as this week, according to a Republican strategist working with the group.

Donald Trump speaks to a crowd in Nashua, New Hampshire, on January 23.

Donald Trump’s New Hampshire triumph puts him on a GOP primary tier few, if any, Republicans have reached. Unofficial returns at time of publication have the former president at about 55% of the vote.

He’s only the second nonincumbent Republican to win a majority of the GOP primary vote in New Hampshire in the modern era. The only other was Ronald Reagan in 1980, and Trump’s 55% surpasses Reagan’s 50.2%. He is also just the second nonincumbent Republican to win the New Hampshire primary twice in the modern era. The other Republican was John McCain.

The fact that Trump was able to win both Iowa and New Hampshire is quite unusual. No other nonincumbent Republican has ever done it. Mitt Romney in 2012 came the closest (winning New Hampshire but losing Iowa by 24 votes) – and he took less than 40% in New Hampshire and under 25% of the vote in Iowa.

Trump’s ability to win Iowa and New Hampshire with such ease tells you how strong his candidacy is among Republicans. He appeals to different parts of the party, as evidenced by the fact that he succeeded in two very different contests in two fairly different states:

Put another way, New Hampshire should have been a far worse state for Trump. His biggest backers look a lot more like the Iowa electorate than New Hampshire voters: conservatives, religious Republicans and Republicans of more modest financial means.

But none of that stopped Trump from pulling in the largest share of the vote for an non-incumbent in New Hampshire GOP primary history. It seems quite plausible at this point that Trump may pull off the ultimate historic GOP primary win: becoming the first non-incumbent Republican to go undefeated in all 50 states during the primary season.

Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips speaks during a primary election night event in Manchester, New Hampshire, on January 23.

Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, who is challenging President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination, told CNN This Morning that “this is a beginning” for his campaign.

“We should have a thoughtful competition, Kasie, because he’s going to lose,” Phillips told CNN’s Kasie Hunt about President Biden’s 2024 electoral prospects.

“Any business person watching this right now knows you have to invest on the front side to develop your name awareness, your brand awareness, and then that cost goes way, way down,” the Minnesota Democrat responded to questions about the financial viability of his campaign.