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    The Last Coal-Fired Power Plants in New England Are to Close

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    The company that owns the Merrimack and Schiller stations in New Hampshire plans to turn them into solar farms and battery storage for offshore wind.The last two coal-fired power plants in New England are set to close by 2025 and 2028, ending the use of a fossil fuel that supplied electricity to the region for more than 50 years.The decision to close the Merrimack and Schiller stations, both in New Hampshire, makes New England the second region in the country, after the Pacific Northwest, to stop burning coal.Environmentalists waged a five-year legal battle against the New Hampshire plants, saying that the owner had discharged warm water from steam turbines into a nearby river without cooling it first to match the natural temperature.In a settlement reached on Wednesday with the Sierra Club and the Conservative Law Foundation, Granite Shore Power, the owner of the plants, agreed that Schiller would not run after Dec. 31, 2025 and that Merrimack would cease operations no later than June 2028.“This announcement is the culmination of years of persistence and dedication from so many people across New England,” said Gina McCarthy, a former national climate adviser to President Biden and former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency during the Obama administration who is now a senior adviser at Bloomberg Philanthropies, which supports efforts to phase out coal.“I’m wicked proud to live in New England today and be here,” Ms. McCarthy said. “Every day, we’re showing the rest of the country that we will secure our clean energy future without compromising.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Political operative and firms behind Biden AI robocall sued for thousands

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      A political operative and two companies that facilitated a fake robocall using AI to impersonate Joe Biden should be required to pay thousands of dollars in damages and should be barred from taking similar future actions, a group of New Hampshire voters and a civic action group said in a federal lawsuit filed on Thursday.The suit comes weeks after Steve Kramer, a political operative, admitted that he was behind the robocall that spoofed Biden’s voice on the eve of the New Hampshire primary and urged Democrats in the state not to vote. Kramer was working for Biden’s challenger Dean Phillips, but Phillips’s campaign said he had nothing to do with the call and Kramer has said he did it as an act of civil disobedience to draw attention to the dangers of AI in elections. The incident may have been the first time AI was used to interfere in a US election.Lawyers for the plaintiffs – three New Hampshire voters who received the calls and the League of Women Voters, a voting rights group – said they believed it was the first lawsuit of its kind seeking redress for using AI in robocalls in elections. The New Hampshire attorney general’s office is investigating the matter.Two Texas companies, Life Corporation and Lingo Telecom, also helped facilitate the calls.“If Defendants are not permanently enjoined from deploying AI-generated robocalls, there is a strong likelihood that it will happen again,” the lawsuit says.The plaintiffs say Kramer and the two companies violated a provision of the Voting Rights Act that prohibits voter intimidation as well a ban in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act on delivering a prerecorded call to someone without their consent. They also say the calls violated New Hampshire state laws that require disclosure of the source of politically related calls.The plaintiffs are seeking up to $7,500 in damages for each plaintiff that received a call that violated federal and state law. The recorded call was sent to anywhere between 5,000 and 25,000 people.“It’s really imperative that we address the threat that these defendants are creating for voters,” Courtney Hostetler, a lawyer with the civic action group Free Speech for People, which is helping represent the plaintiffs, said in a press call with reporters on Thursday.“The other hope of this lawsuit is that it will demonstrate to other people who might attempt similar campaigns that this is illegal, that there are parties out there like the League of Women Voters who are prepared to challenge this sort of illegal voter intimidation, and these illegal deceptive practices, hopefully make them think twice before they do the same,” she added.NBC News reported Kramer paid a street magician in New Orleans $150 to create the call using a script Kramer prepared.“This is a way for me to make a difference, and I have,” he said in the interview last month. “For $500, I got about $5m worth of action, whether that be media attention or regulatory action.”Mark Herring, a former Virginia attorney general who is helping represent the plaintiffs, told reporters on Thursday that kind of justification was “self-serving”.“Regardless of the motivation, the intent here was to suppress the vote, and to threaten and coerce voters into not voting out of fear that they might lose their right to vote,” he said. More

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      Fake Biden robocalls in New Hampshire linked to Texas companies, officials say

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      US authorities issued cease-and-desist orders on Tuesday against two Texas companies they believe were connected to robocalls that used artificial intelligence to mimic Joe Biden’s voice and discourage people from voting in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary last month.During a news conference to discuss the investigation, officials described the calls as the clearest and possibly first known attempt to use AI to interfere with an election in the US.The New Hampshire attorney general, John Formella, said investigators have identified the source of the calls as Life Corporation and said they were transmitted by a company called Lingo Telecom.New Hampshire issued cease-and-desist orders and subpoenas to both companies, while the Federal Communications Commission issued a cease-and-desist letter to the telecommunications company, Formella said. In a statement, the FCC said it was trying to stop “behavior that violates voter suppression laws.”“That’s been something we’ve been concerned about in the law enforcement community for a while, and it’s certainly something that state attorneys general have talked about, but we had not seen as concrete of an example as this, days before a primary,” he said.A message left for Life Corporation’s owner, Walter Monk, at his company Wholesale Communication was not immediately returned. Alex Valencia, who was named in an FCC letter as the chief compliance officer at Lingo Telecom, did not immediately return an emailed request for comment.The recorded message was sent to between 5,000 and 25,000 voters two days before the 23 January primary. It used a voice similar to Biden’s, employed his often-used phrase, “What a bunch of malarkey” and falsely suggested that voting in the primary would preclude voters from casting a ballot in November’s general election.Biden won the Democratic primary as a write-in candidate after he kept his name off the ballot in deference to South Carolina’s new lead-off position for the Democratic primaries.The calls falsely showed up to recipients as coming from the personal cellphone number of Kathy Sullivan, a former state Democratic party chair who helps run Granite for America, a super Pac that supported the Biden write-in campaign. Formella said at least 10 people who received the calls then called Sullivan.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe apparent attempt at voter suppression using rapidly advancing generative AI technology is one example of what experts warn will make 2024 a year of unprecedented election disinformation around the world. Formella said the investigation is just beginning, but he wanted to send a strong message to deter others who might be tempted to interfere in this year’s elections.“Our message is clear: law enforcement across the country is unified on a bipartisan basis and ready to work together to combat any attempt to undermine our elections,” he said. More

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      Nikki Haley Isn’t Going Anywhere

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      What is Nikki Haley doing? What are her real intentions? Those questions have dominated every aspect of her candidacy.So much of what’s been said about Ms. Haley the last few months has been about what she’ll do after she loses — even that the original premise of the campaign must have contained hidden ambitions or total delusion. There’s been an assumption, even from would-be allies, that there must be another angle to the campaign, that she must want the vice presidency.That’s partly because, in her speeches, Ms. Haley often resists giving her listeners satisfaction, withholding the obvious point, allowing them to fill in what they want, both to Ms. Haley’s benefit and peril. She did not make a strong moral case against Donald Trump last year.But here we are after her big loss in New Hampshire, framed by many as the definitive end. Right now, Ms. Haley’s unwillingness to publicly engage with the obvious works differently, reveals different things.For instance, in a hotel ballroom by the Charleston, S.C., airport, with people decked out in “SC ❤️ NH” stickers, cheerfully wanting something they and everybody else know they probably won’t get, she proceeded as normal, giving that homecoming crowd primarily her normal remarks. She layered in critiques of Mr. Trump that dealt with inarguable surface realities, like how he talked about her the night before rather than about solutions to the nation’s problems: “He didn’t talk about the American people once; he talked about revenge!” (When she ran through a variety of problems he could have talked about, one woman yelled, “He don’t know!”)Insofar as she engaged with the obvious, literal reason that people in the room seemed so amped — that she was still in the race — it was this: “You know, the political elites, in this state and around the country, have said that we just need to let Donald Trump have this.” That was clearly what people in the room, who dropped into a long “noooo,” had come to hear discussed.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More

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      The Ogre Gorging on America

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      If you can imagine the lobby bar of the Manchester Marriott as an Anglo-Saxon mead hall, I can explain how it felt to cover the New Hampshire primary.I will need the help of the late Seamus Heaney, who described what it was like to be quaffing in Heorot Hall while Grendel lurked and swooped through the frost-stiffened north.In his lyrical translation of “Beowulf,” Heaney described Grendel as “the terror-monger,” the “captain of evil” and “the dread of the land.”He wrote that the fiend “ruled in defiance of right” and was “malignant by nature, he never showed remorse.”The “powerful demon, a prowler through the dark, nursed a hard grievance,” he said, adding: “Grendel waged his lonely war, inflicting constant cruelties on the people, atrocious hurt,” pursuing “vicious raids and ravages.”The New Hampshire primary felt like a chapter of that Old English saga: Donald Trump, the ogre who keeps coming back to terrorize us, was stomping around that lovely little snow-covered state, devouring his foes.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More

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      Tim Scott’s behaviour around Trump is ‘humiliating’, says the Rev Al Sharpton

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      The South Carolina Republican senator Tim Scott’s behaviour around Donald Trump is “humiliating”, the civil rights leader Rev Al Sharpton said.“It was humiliating to watch what Tim Scott did as a sitting senator,” Sharpton told MSNBC, for which he hosts a show, after Scott appeared with the former president in New Hampshire, where Trump won the Republican presidential primary on Tuesday.Trump faces 91 criminal charges (including 17 for election subversion), civil lawsuits (one arising from a rape claim a judge called “substantially true”) and attempts to keep him off the ballot for inciting an insurrection.Regardless, his only remaining rival for the Republican nomination is Nikki Haley, who in 2012, as governor of South Carolina, appointed Scott to the US Senate.The only Black Republican in that chamber, Scott ran for president himself but dropped out early, endorsing Trump before New Hampshire.Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, said: “I think [Trump] will be the nominee. And I think he’s demanding people bow to him.“There are few moments in my life [when] I’ve been more embarrassed than to watch Tim Scott. You know, I know Tim and I are both practicing Christians, but I don’t know if he could pray like that to the other side. It was humiliating to watch what Tim Scott did as a sitting senator. And at one time … he wasn’t even on the script, he interrupted Trump to pay homage.”In Nashua, Trump said: “Did you ever think [Haley] actually supported you, Tim? And you’re the senator of her state. And [you] endorsed me. You must really hate her.”Interrupting, Scott said: “I just love you.”“That’s why he’s a great politician,” Trump said.Sharpton said: “It’s not a fine day in my life to watch [Scott] do that. To think that we fought to see people like him, Black, become high-elected in the south … he has a right to be Republican, he has a right to [endorse] Donald Trump, but to do it in such a way that is so humiliating was troubling. Let’s put it that way. I’m going to try to be as nice as I can.”Other critics were less nice.Etan Thomas, an NBA player turned writer, said: “Good Lord, Tim Scott. Shaking my head.”Tara Setmayer, a Republican operative turned Trump opponent, asked: “Who’s worse? Trump or his court jester enablers?”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe author Jeff Sharlet said: “I hold Tim Scott in contempt, but the depth of self-abasement here is hard to look at. All the more so for understanding how Trump’s supporters see it, a racist inoculation against charges of racism that in turn ‘permits’ more racism.”On CBS, Scott was asked about his decision to oppose Haley.“Let’s not forget that President Trump appointed Nikki Haley to be an ambassador [to the United Nations],” Scott said. “So she’s certainly campaigning against him.”He claimed he had not heard Trump suggest that as president he would investigate Haley if she did not drop out. His host pointed out that Trump said Haley had “a very bad night” and added: “I don’t get angry, I get even” as cameras caught Scott laughing.“I did,” Scott conceded. “I did.”Asked about speculation he could be Trump’s running mate, Scott said: “The only conversation I had with [Trump] about being vice-president was, ‘I’ll never ask you to be vice-president, I’ll never ask to be part of your cabinet.’”Pressed on whether he would like to be vice-president, Scott declined to answer. More

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      Biden attacks Trump after securing UAW endorsement; union says Trump is ‘against everything we stand for’ – as it happened

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      “We have more work to do but our plan is delivering to the American people, building an economy from the bottom up, not the top down,” said Biden.“If I’m going to be in a fight, I want to be in a fight with you, UAW. We have a big fight in front of us. We’re fundamentally changing the economy of this country, taking it from the economy that takes care of those at the top… All anyone wants is just a fair shot, an even shot,” he added.”“You’re the heroes of this story,” he continued.Biden also condemned Donald Trump’s policies, saying, “He’s the only president other than Herbert Hoover who lost jobs when he was president.”“He cut taxes for the very wealthy and the biggest corporations. He shipped good paying jobs overseas because labor was cheaper… It hollowed out entire communities, closing factories, I’m not making this up, you know this to be true,” Biden added.Here is a wrap-up of the day’s key events:
      The United Auto Workers union has endorsed Joe Biden for re-election as president. Addressing the union, UAW president Shawn Fain said: “This November, we can stand up and elect someone who stands with us and supports our cause, or we can elect someone who will divide us, and fight us every step of the way.”
      Joe Biden addressed the UAW at its conference in Washington DC and was met with repeated applause and cheers following the union’s endorsement of him. “I’ve always fought for a strong auto industry… You deserve to benefit when these companies thrive… Record profits mean record contracts,” said Biden, adding, “We build in America, we buy in America.”
      Joe Biden also condemned Donald Trump’s policies, saying, “He’s the only president other than Herbert Hoover who lost jobs when he was president.” “He cut taxes for the very wealthy and the biggest corporations. He shipped good paying jobs overseas because labor was cheaper… It hollowed out entire communities, closing factories, I’m not making this up, you know this to be true,” Biden added.
      Joe Biden’s re-election campaign expressed confidence in the president’s ability to again defeat Donald Trump in November, even as polls show the two men running neck and neck. Biden also made some changes to his campaign team, bringing in reinforcements from the White House.
      Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel called on Nikki Haley to drop her 2024 presidential bid, the day after Trump beat her in the New Hampshire primary. “Looking at the math and the path going forward…I don’t see it for Nikki Haley,” said McDaniel.
      Nikki Haley vowed to carry on her campaign despite losing the New Hampshire primary by a significant margin. She immediately headed to her home state of South Carolina, which holds its Republican primary on 23 February.
      Donald Trump comfortably won the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday evening, beating his only remaining credible contender, Haley, into second place. It was not a crushing victory but it was solid.
      Ryan Binkley, a Texas pastor and co-founder of a financial services firm, remains committed to becoming the US’s next president. Binkley, who received 0.1% of the votes – or 284 votes – in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, has his eyes now set on Nevada. “Please keep spreading the word about http://Binkley2024.com as I move forward to Nevada,” he wrote on X.
      That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as we wrap up the blog for today. Thank you for following along.Ryan Binkley, a Texas pastor and co-founder of a financial services firm, remains committed to becoming the US’s next president.Binkley, who received 0.1% of the votes – or 284 votes – in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, has his eyes now set on Nevada.In a post on X, Binkley thanked New Hampshire residents, saying:
      “New Hampshire: Thank you for a great few days. I enjoyed the time and conversation around issues that matter to all Americans. Thank you for being #FITN [’first in the nation’]. Please keep spreading the word about http://Binkley2024.com as I move forward to Nevada.”
      He went on to include several hashtags including “#WhoIsRyanBinkley.”Binkley, who launched his presidential bid nine months ago, has spent more than $8m of his own money on his campaign.Explaining his decision to run, Binkley said, “God spoke to me.”Here is video of United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain announcing UAW’s endorsement of Joe Biden: Fain said:
      “We need to know who is going to stand up with us and this choice is clear. “Joe Biden bet on the American worker, while Donald Trump blamed the American worker! We need to know who’s going to sit in the most powerful seat in the world and help us win as a united working class. So if our endorsements must be earned, Joe Biden has earned it!”
      Biden concluded his speech to a room full of applause, saying, “It’s never ever ever been a good bet to bet against the American people.”“I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s future… There’s nothing beyond our capacity when we work together,” he added.“We have more work to do but our plan is delivering to the American people, building an economy from the bottom up, not the top down,” said Biden.“If I’m going to be in a fight, I want to be in a fight with you, UAW. We have a big fight in front of us. We’re fundamentally changing the economy of this country, taking it from the economy that takes care of those at the top… All anyone wants is just a fair shot, an even shot,” he added.”“You’re the heroes of this story,” he continued.Biden also condemned Donald Trump’s policies, saying, “He’s the only president other than Herbert Hoover who lost jobs when he was president.”“He cut taxes for the very wealthy and the biggest corporations. He shipped good paying jobs overseas because labor was cheaper… It hollowed out entire communities, closing factories, I’m not making this up, you know this to be true,” Biden added.“I strongly believe a company’s transition to new technology should…include every hire in the same factories in the same communities with comparable wages,” said Biden.“Existing union workers should have the first shot at these jobs,” he added.“I don’t believe any company should be using threats or tactics to stand in the way of workers’ righst to organize. Period,” he continued.The crowd descended into a united chant of “UAW!” as Biden looked on.“We build in America, we buy in America,” said Biden. “Because of you, Toyota, Volkswagen, Nissan…all gave their workers double digit raises. Because of you!” he said.“I’ve always fought for a strong auto industry… You deserve to benefit when these companies thrive… Record profits mean record contracts,” Joe Biden told a cheering crowd.“I’m tired of jobs going overseas… But not anymore. We’re building products here and shipping overseas!” he added.The influence of the union, a symbol of America’s working class, cannot be understated.The endorsement secures a major win for Biden, who hoped to win the group’s favor after appearing on a picket line with striking auto workers last fall – a first for a sitting president. Biden said it was his goal to “be the most pro-union president ever.”A grateful Biden has now taken the stage after receiving UAW’s endorsement.“This November, we can stand up and elect someone who stands with us and supports our cause, or we can elect someone who will divide us, and fight us every step of the way,” UAW president Shawn Fain said.“That’s what this choice is about. The question is, who do we want in that office to give us the best shot of winning?”“Biden!” someone could be heard shouting from the crowd.The endorsement of UAW is likely to send a message that Biden is on the side of working-class Americans – a group the Trump campaign has tried to court in the past.Addressing the union, UAW president Shawn Fain spoke of unity and putting fear in the hearts of the billionaire class.“They try to weaken us by dividing us,” Fain said, referring to large corporations that take the lion’s share of profits. “The wealthy divide the masses as the rich walk away with all the money.”Biden is about to address the United Automobile Workers union at their conference held in Washington. The powerful labor group is expected to endorse the president for a second term, AP reports. It’s good news for Biden who needs to make gains in key swing states like Michigan and Wisconsin, where auto-manufacturing is major industry.UAW also endorsed Biden in 2020.Joe Biden is about to address the annual conference of the United Auto Workers union, in Washington, DC, and reports are multiplying that the union intends to endorse him for re-election as US president.The Democrat from working class Scranton has frequently called himself the most pro-union US president and he became the first sitting president to appear on a picket line when he supported the auto workers in their industrial action against the big three makers of Ford, General Motors and Chrysler vehicles last fall.Outlets including NBC, CNN and the New York Times are among those citing sources that the UAW will endorse Biden this afternoon. Reuters cited the NYT in its report.Biden told striking workers last September in Michigan that they deserved a big pay rise, after years of wage scrimping while their corporations did well. The workers ended up getting deals and resolving the strikes.The Senate this afternoon is expected to confirm Jacquelyn Austin to become a US district judge South Carolina and Cristal Brisco to become a US district judge in the northern district of Indiana.The two women will bring the total number of Black women appointed to lifetime seats on the federal bench in Joe Biden’s presidency to 35.Judge Brisco will be the first Black judge and first woman of color to serve as a lifetime judge on the northern district of Indiana. Judge Austin will be the third Black woman to serve as a lifetime judge on the district of South Carolina and the only Black woman who will be currently serving, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights noted in a statement earlier today.“Milestones like this are important. The Senate’s confirmation of 35 Black women – many of whom have worked to advance civil and human rights throughout their legal careers – to lifetime appointments on our federal courts continues the Biden administration’s historic progress toward building a judiciary that reflects and represents the vast diversity of our nation. We celebrate this progress, including the critical yet underrepresented legal backgrounds that many of these judges bring to the bench,” said Lena Zwarensteyn, senior director of the fair courts program at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.Asked about the milestone at a media briefing in the west wing earlier, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Joe Biden “has been very proud of the women, the women of color, that he has been able to put forward for these positions…It’s important that we have this kind of representation, representation matters.”It’s been a lively morning after the night before in New Hampshire and there’s much afoot in Washington and on the campaign trail, so follow events here as they happen.Here’s where things stand:
      Joe Biden’s re-election campaign expressed confidence in the president’s ability to again defeat Donald Trump in November, even as polls show the two men running neck and neck. Biden also made some changes to his campaign team, bringing in reinforcements from the White House.
      Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel called on Nikki Haley to drop her 2024 presidential bid, the day after Trump beat her in the New Hampshire primary.
      Joe Biden won New Hampshire’s Democratic presidential primary, even though the incumbent refused to campaign in the state and had to rely on a write-in campaign powered by his allies and surrogates to secure a victory.
      Nikki Haley vowed to carry on her campaign despite losing the New Hampshire primary by a significant margin. She immediately headed to her home state of South Carolina, which holds its Republican primary on 23 February.
      Donald Trump comfortably won the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday evening, beating his only remaining credible contender, Haley, into second place. It was not a crushing victory but it was solid.
      Dean Phillips, the Democratic congressman from Minnesota, is pushing on with his 2024 bid for president.On Wednesday, Phillips departed for South Carolina ahead of the state’s primaries next month. According to his campaign, Phillips is set to greet patrons at the Bistreaux by Fleur de Licious, a restaurant in the state capital Columbia, this evening.Speaking to ABC on Tuesday, Phillips vowed to stay in the race, saying,
      “The country would be much happier with a Dean Phillips-Nikki Haley matchup this November. I know she’s hearing that. I’m hearing the same thing.”
      Donald Trump spent his victory night in New Hampshire privately seething to his aides, according to reports.CNN reports that after the polls for the state’s primary closed, Trump “continued to rail against Nikki Haley privately and publicly after she declined to drop out of the race”.The ex-president also reportedly told his aides that he was baffled that Haley remains adamant about staying in the race, and urged his political aides to ramp up their attacks on his former UN ambassador.During his speech last night, Trump issued a warning to Haley, saying: “Just a little note to Nikki. She’s not going to win. But if she did, she would be under investigation by those people in 15 minutes, and I could tell you five reasons why already.”He added: “Not big reasons, little stuff that she doesn’t want to talk about, that she will be under investigation within minutes, and so would Ron [DeSantis] have been, but he decided to get out.Joe Biden’s campaign expressed confidence in the president’s ability to again defeat Donald Trump in November, even as polls show the two men running neck and neck.Quentin Fulks, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, noted that Trump’s 11-point margin of victory in New Hampshire last night was actually narrower than his 20-point win in 2016, when he was running against more opponents.“To put simply, Trump’s party is divided, and now he’s about to face the only politician who has ever beaten him and who did so with more votes than any presidential candidate in history: President Joe Biden,” Fulks said.But reporters pressed campaign officials about Biden’s performance in polls, some of which show Trump pulling ahead in key battleground states.“We don’t govern based on polls, and polls are just a snapshot in time,” said Cedric Richmond, the Biden campaign co-chair. “If I had a dollar for every time somebody counted Joe Biden out based on polls or something else, then I’d be independently wealthy.”He added: “Do we think we’re going to win? Absolutely. Because there’s too much on the line not to for the American people.” More

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      Upbeat Haley vows to press on but prospects against Trump look bleak

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      Nikki Haley was surprisingly peppy as she took the stage in New Hampshire on Tuesday, considering she had just suffered her second bruising defeat by Donald Trump. Trump beat Haley by 11 points in New Hampshire, a victory that came on the heels of the former president’s 30-point win in the Iowa caucuses.Undaunted by the reality of her losses, the former UN ambassador pledged that she would continue on in the Republican presidential primary. Haley voiced confidence about her performance in her home state of South Carolina, which will hold its Republican primary on 24 February.“New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last in the nation,” Haley told supporters in Concord. “This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go, and the next one is my sweet state of South Carolina.”But everyone not named Nikki Haley appears all too ready to declare the Republican primary over. With Trump winning a historic majority of votes in Iowa and New Hampshire, Haley’s path to the nomination appears increasingly difficult – if not impossible. In his victory speech on Tuesday, Trump belittled her efforts to downplay her losses and mocked her decision to stay in the race.“She had a very bad night,” Trump said. “She came in third [in Iowa], and she’s still hanging around.”In a rare moment of agreement between Trump and Joe Biden, the president made clear that he would turn his attention to the general election in November, effectively writing off any chance of a Haley comeback.“It is now clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee. And my message to the country is the stakes could not be higher,” Biden said in a statement. “I want to say to all those independents and Republicans who share our commitment to core values of our nation our Democracy, our personal freedoms, an economy that gives everyone a fair shot – to join us as Americans.”Despite Haley’s claims to the contrary, her prospects in South Carolina and beyond look bleak. According to the FiveThirtyEight polling average, Trump is running 37 points ahead of Haley in South Carolina, where he has already locked up the endorsements of the state’s governor and senators. If anything, Haley’s losing performance in New Hampshire may represent a high-water mark for her, given her strong support among independent voters who were allowed to participate in the Republican primary.There’s also the question of money. Haley has reportedly planned a major fundraising swing with big donors in the coming weeks. However, if those donors start abandoning her in large numbers, Haley may have no choice but to withdraw .Of course, Haley’s campaign insists she can be competitive in many states that will vote on Super Tuesday, which falls on 5 March. In a campaign memo circulated on Tuesday, Betsy Ankney, Haley’s campaign manager, noted that roughly two-thirds of the 874 delegates up for grabs on Super Tuesday are in states with open or semi-open primaries.“Until then, everyone should take a deep breath. The campaign has not even begun in any of these states yet,” Ankney said. “A month in politics is a lifetime. We’re watching democracy in action. We’re letting the people have a voice. That’s how this is supposed to work.”As Haley looks ahead to South Carolina, her campaign has leaned into the message that she is the most electable Republican candidate. In one of two new ads that the Haley campaign dropped in South Carolina on Wednesday, a narrator highlights Biden and Trump’s unpopularity and makes the pitch for a new era of political leadership.“Biden – too old. Trump – too much chaos,” the narrator in the ad says. “A rematch no one wants. There’s a better choice for a better America.”Some data supports Haley’s electability argument. She performed well with moderate Republican voters in New Hampshire, pointing to a potential vulnerability for Trump in November, and one Wall Street Journal poll frequently cited by Haley’s team showed her beating Biden by 17 points in a general election.The problem is, she has no viable route to that general election.Nevertheless, at the election night watch party in Concord, Haley’s supporters echoed the candidate’s resilience.“I’m not about to have a panic attack after one state,” Marie Mulroy, 76, said moments after Haley spoke. Mulroy is an independent New Hampshire voter who backed Biden in 2020 and remains hopeful she’ll have the opportunity to cast her ballot for the first female president in November.“If it’s like this after Super Tuesday, then you start thinking,” she added.Mary Ann Hanusa was so committed to electing Haley that she flew to New Hampshire to volunteer for her campaign after caucusing for Haley in Iowa, where she lives. Hanusa said she was prepared to go to South Carolina to help.“I think Americans deserve a choice,” she said. “We’ve got 48 states to go.” More

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      After New Hamphire, Business Braces for a Trump Nomination

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      Donald Trump cruised to victory in the state’s Republican primary, leaving anti-Trump donors and others to grapple with the reality of a near-certain nomination.Donald Trump cruised to victory in the New Hampshire Republican primary on Tuesday night.Doug Mills/The New York TimesTrump marches on As widely expected, Donald Trump handily won the New Hampshire Republican primary, defeating Nikki Haley by double digits.That has left anti-Trump donors and the broader business community glimpsing an increasingly likely future: The former president will become the Republican nominee, and stands a good shot of winning in November.Haley said she would fight on, arguing last night that “this race is far from over.” But the former South Carolina governor will head to her home state — she’s skipping the Nevada caucuses on Feb. 8 — badly trailing Trump in polls there, with many of her Palmetto State colleagues having endorsed her opponent.A growing number of Republicans are now suggesting that she should drop out: Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a senior G.O.P. lawmaker, said that his party needed “to unite around a single candidate.”Donors may start falling in line, too. A number of Haley supporters are reportedly heading to the exits: An unnamed Republican fund-raiser told CNBC’s Brian Schwartz that one of her donors was done with her campaign, declaring it over.Meanwhile, Puck’s Teddy Schleifer wrote on the social media platform X that the casino magnate Steve Wynn and the financier John Paulson attended Trump’s New Hampshire victory party last night. And Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who appeared at the event, told Schleifer that he expected the Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, his biggest backer before Scott dropped out of the primary race, to support Trump as well.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More