Although polls suggested he was more than 20 points ahead of Nikki Haley, in the end he won by only 11. Nikki Haley collected 9 of the 21 delegates awarded, though she will be out of the race long before the nine can vote for her at the Convention.

Trump clearly was disappointed by his margin of victory. After his impressive win in Iowa, the former president praised his main opponents, including Haley. After this win, he reverted to type and took shots at the former South Carolina governor.

Exit polls suggest that Trump carried New Hampshire Republican primary voters by a margin of about 3 to 1. However, they show Haley carrying independents by a 3-to-2.

[I get where Paul’s coming from, and he’s not altogether off base. He sees this through the wrong paradigm in both cases, though. Trump actually performed at about his aggregate polling level (just a point or so off), which was a few points lower than the Boston Globe/Suffolk tracking poll finale. Trump’s majority win in New Hampshire — which despite Trump’s claim has never been a strong ground for MAGA — emphatically endorsed Trump as the incumbent and made clear that this is a strong majority position in the GOP, whether one likes it or not. Biden’s win came after his team fumbled the ball and forgot to put him on the ballot; getting that many voters to write him in for a meaningless primary is at least somewhat significant. — Ed]