By HOLLY RAMER, JILL COLVIN and WILL WEISSERT
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Nikki Haley, the last major GOP opponent of Donald Trump, insisted she would not drop out if she loses Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary to the former president, who aimed for a commanding victory to make a November rematch with President Joe Biden more likely than ever.
Trump’s allies were already ramping up pressure on the former U.N. ambassador to leave the race if she falls by a large margin. Haley has focused considerable resources on New Hampshire, hoping to capitalize on the state’s independent streak as she looks for an upset or at least a tight loss that could dent Trump’s continued domination of Republican politics.
“I’m running against Donald Trump, and I’m not going to talk about an obituary,” Haley told reporters.
Trump countered, “Let her do whatever she wants,” saying voters will deliver the nomination to him anyway. His aides have argued for several days that Haley has no realistic path if she loses in New Hampshire.
AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of the state’s voters, found Republicans have slightly more doubts about Trump than respondents reported in Iowa, where the former president won last week’s caucuses.
About half of New Hampshire GOP voters said they were very or somewhat concerned that Trump is too extreme to win the general election. Only about one-third said the same about Haley.
Regarding Trump’s criminal indictments, about one-third of GOP participants in New Hampshire believe the former president has done something illegal related to his alleged attempt to interfere in the vote count in the 2020 presidential election, his role in what happened at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, or the classified documents found at his Florida home after he left the White House.
Still, if Trump wins New Hampshire, he would be the first Republican presidential candidate to prevail in open races in Iowa and New Hampshire since both states began…
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