His speech was the most personal and heartfelt of the four that I heard, and I found myself hoping that Kasich’s message would ultimately triumph over the bellicosity of Trump, Cruz, Rubio, and the rest of the Republicans. Jim Gilmore is technically still in the race, but has failed to receive even 1 percent of the vote in Iowa or New Hampshire.
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On the Republican side, the emergence of Ohio Governor John Kasich, who finished second to Mr. Trump, muddled the attempt by the party’s mainstream to coalesce behind an alternative to the real estate mogul. He fought a positive campaign in New Hampshire, upbeat in style. But it shows how far the Bush brand has fallen that the former Florida governor had to count a fourth-place finish with 11 percent of the vote as a victory. With dim prospects for a sorely needed infusion of campaign cash, Christie was expected to drop out, said two people familiar with his plans who weren’t authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
One beneficiary of Rubio’s travails is Jeb Bush, who seems well placed to compete in the next battle in SC. “So you’ve got to drive a message if you want them to know who you are, and you’ve got to be consistent about it”, Rubio said. “I’m not gonna sit there and be a marshmallow and have somebody pound me”.
The Cruz campaign was already shifting its attention to SC as Granite Staters went to the polls Tuesday, sending Cruz’s wife, Heidi, to an election-night party in Charleston. Kasich had staked most of his presidential ambitions on New Hampshire, holding more than 100 town halls across the state and racking up endorsements from more newspaper editorial boards in the state than any of his rivals.
Kasich also planned a veteran’s hiring event and steel plant tour on his first full day in SC. He may now have to consider withdrawing: he has little money and a weak organisation, and unless he can pull in more donors quickly it’s hard to see how he can plot a path to the nomination.
State Rep. Debbie Mayfield, R-Vero Beach – who spent a snowy weekend before the primary working for Rubio in New Hampshire with South Carolina Republicans Sen. “I did not do well on Saturday night, so listen to this: that will never happen again”. “I did not do well on Saturday night”, Rubio said.
“For us, it’s now time to hit that next gear”, he said.
Having courted social conservatives in Iowa and moderates in New Hampshire, the candidates face an electorate infused with evangelical, pro-business and military-minded flavors. He likened himself to Sanders on the issue of trade on MSNBC Wednesday morning, but made the case that he could do better on the issue than the Vermont senator.
“I’ve only looked at Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, that’s pretty much it”, Shawn Green said.
Nor did Trump miss an opportunity to tout his controversial proposal for a wall along the southern border, pushing back on former Mexican President Calderone, who said Mexico would not be paying for his vaunted wall. “And I guess he and I are the only two that are saying that”. Additional Republican candidates could well head for the exits after New Hampshire.
“I’m not going to be diverted”, Mr. Kasich said. “We were just there, and we had 12,000 people in a wonderful, wonderful arena”, he told CNN’s Jake Tapper. And that meant everything for the campaign’s momentum in New Hampshire.
The campaign circulated talking points to surrogates and supporters to drive the point home.
Clinton and Fiorina greeted each other at a middle school in Derry, New Hampshire that serves as a polling site. The political landscape is much different. The South Carolina senator endorsed Bush after abandoning his own hopes for the presidency in December. It needs a quick, massive financial infusion, it has create to a political network in many states nearly from scratch and it has to wait a month before a primary is held in its next big target of MI.
“When we stand together, we win”.
“He assessed what the problem was, he took responsibility for it and now let’s move on and go to SC”, she said.
That’s right, a loud-mouthed Hillary Clinton supporter just won the Republican vote and a 74-year-old, self-described socialist just won the Democratic vote.
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Mrs Clinton echoed Mr Sanders’ calls for tackling income inequality, but cast herself as more prepared to make good on her policy pledges.
