January 21 - 2024 campaign updates

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Sunday night touted a two-person race as she battles with former President Donald Trump for the GOP nomination after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ended his campaign.

During her rally in Exeter, New Hampshire, Haley greeted the crowd by boasting about the state of the race with only two days until the first-in-the-nation primary. 

“Can you hear that sound? That’s the sound of a two-person race,” the former South Carolina governor said as the crowd cheered.  

Haley was joined by Judy Sheindlin, star of "Judge Judy," who gave her pitch to Granite State voters as to why they should back Haley.

“For me, finding the person that we can be proud of ... is probably the most important decision that all of us are going to have to make in our current history. Nikki Haley has to be that candidate,” Judge Judy said. 

New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu also attended, saying he’s “tired of losing … and I'm sure as hell tired of Donald Trump.”

“If you will join with us on Tuesday, if you will bring five friends with you to the polls, I will spend every day proving to you that you made a good decision,” Haley said.

Former President Donald Trump on Sunday touted the recent endorsements he has received from one-time GOP 2024 rivals, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and flexed his lead in the polls over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley ahead of the New Hampshire primary Tuesday. 

“Vivek just came with us and now Ron just came with us, they're all coming with us,” Trump said, referring to Vivek Ramaswamy and DeSantis, at a campaign event in Rochester, New Hampshire.

Trump also touted the endorsement he received from South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, noting Haley appointed Scott to his Senate seat when she was the state's governor. In the final days ahead of the New Hampshire primary, Trump has sought to highlight support he has in Haley’s home state of South Carolina, where she was twice elected governor. 

The former president also spoke about his upcoming court appearance in his civil defamation case Monday in New York before he flies to New Hampshire for a campaign rally on the eve of the primary.

“Tomorrow ... I do the court thing, then I come back and I make a speech tomorrow night and hopefully that should wrap it up because we are so far ahead, it's incredible,” Trump said. 

Former President Donald Trump on Sunday congratulated Ron DeSantis for running what he described as “a really good campaign,” hours after the Florida governor announced he was ending his presidential campaign and backing Trump.

It was the first time in months Trump used DeSantis’ real name as opposed to the nickname he had been using, Ron DeSanctimonious, as he attacked him.

“He was very gracious and he endorsed me, so I appreciated that. I appreciate that and I also look forward to working with Ron and everybody else to defeat Crooked Joe Biden," Trump said.

Some more context: Trump viciously attacked DeSantis throughout his White House bid, focusing the majority of his attacks on the governor before the Iowa caucuses. Many of those attacks stemmed from Trump's personal animosity toward DeSantis for being "disloyal" by running against him after Trump had endorsed DeSantis for governor in 2017, according to multiple Trump campaign advisers and people close to the former president.

Just hours after Ron DeSantis ended his presidential campaign and endorsed Donald Trump, the former president's campaign on Sunday sent a fundraising text to supporters to raise money off the Florida governor's support. 

"Ron DeSantis endorses ME! It was a hard-fought race, but now it’s time for us TO UNITE AS A PARTY AND DEFEAT JOE BIDEN!" the fundraising appeal read. 

The message also called on voters to help wrap up the Republican primary early by donating to Trump's campaign.

"The New Hampshire primary is ON TUESDAY. If we’re going to wrap up the primaries, it will be all because of what you do right here, right now," it said.

Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna told progressives to vote for the President Joe Biden even if they don't fully agree with him, becoming is the latest surrogate to join the grassroots effort in New Hampshire to write in Biden's name on the Democratic primary ballot Tuesday.

The California lawmaker, who appeared at multiple events this weekend, said a win in New Hampshire would set the course for the president's reelection campaign. Khanna repeated the mantra many involved in the effort have adopted when asked how well the president needs to perform as a write-in candidate: "A win is a win."

Khanna said though he is more politically progressive than Biden, "you can be more progressive and support this president for what he has achieved and what he's going to achieve, in contrast to the alternative, which is gonna be Donald Trump."

He told young voters and progressives, groups where the president's approval rating has been suffering, that "you don't have to agree 100%."

Read more about the write-in effort here.

Inside the Farm Bar & Grille in Manchester, New Hampshire, where Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was set to appear Sunday night — before he dropped out of the race —supporters, state representatives and some campaign staff gathered in a private room. 

"People feel like they gave it their all," Michael Gorecki, the DeSantis campaign's New Hampshire state director, told CNN. "While there's disappointment, there's great hope for the future." 

One DeSantis supporter at the restaurant said she was surprised when he dropped out of the race. 

“Well, I was surprised like everybody else,” Jeanine Notter told CNN. “I was under the impression that he was going to stay in it until Super Tuesday.” 

Notter, who had a "DeSantis for President" sign tucked under her arm, said she would now be voting for former President Donald Trump in New Hampshire’s Republican primary.

“President Trump is so far ahead of everybody else, I think he realized, that’s what he said, that there was no path to victory,” Notter said, adding she hopes DeSantis runs in four years.

At the restaurant, people were drinking beers around tables and chatting with one another as the Tampa v. Detroit football game played. Pizza, chicken tenders and other small plates were passed out. The gathering is open to supporters and anyone who RSVP'd to the event but closed to press. 

The race for the Republican presidential nomination is down to two major candidates. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced he is ending his campaign Sunday, nearly a week after his underwhelming performance in Iowa.

In a video on X, DeSantis said there was no clear path to presidential success for his campaign and endorsed former President Donald Trump.

The announcement comes just days before Tuesday's first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire, where former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley hopes to close the gap with Trump.

Here's what to know:

Other headlines from the campaign trail:

When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ supporters in the latest CNN New Hampshire poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire are reallocated to their second choice candidate, former President Donald Trump’s double-digit lead over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley among likely Republican primary voters widens slightly.

Trump’s support ticks up from 50% to 54%, while Haley shifts from 39% to 41%. Another 3% of likely GOP primary voters say they’d vote for someone else.

The poll asked voters who they would support if their top choice was no longer in the race. DeSantis suspended his campaign Sunday, a few hours after the poll’s findings were first released.

The Florida governor was the first choice of 6% of likely New Hampshire GOP primary voters, and his supporters generally tilted toward Trump over Haley in their second choices. The survey was fielded from January 16 through January 19.

Shifting DeSantis backers to their second choices doesn’t materially change the dynamics of the race, and if anything, pushes Trump and Haley’s opposing coalitions a bit further apart.

Among registered Republicans, for example, Trump’s support ticks to 72% from 67%, while Haley’s backing among those who are registered as undeclared stands at 60% instead of 58%. And Trump’s support among the state’s conservative likely GOP primary voters climbs to 77% from 71%, while Haley holds 72% among moderate likely Republican primary voters, similar to her level of support initially.

The CNN poll conducted by UNH was conducted online among 2,348 New Hampshire adults drawn from a probability-based panel. The 1,210 likely Republican primary voters were identified through survey questions about their intention to vote. Results for that group have an error margin of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. In a video announcing his exit, he quoted Winston Churchill. Or did he?

In a video posted to X, DeSantis said, “Winston Churchill once remarked that 'success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.' While this campaign has ended, the mission continues down here in Florida. We will continue to show the country how to lead."

The International Churchill Society, which dubs itself "the world’s preeminent member organisation dedicated to preserving the historic legacy of Sir Winston Churchill," maintains a list of quotes falsely attributed to the legendary World War II British prime minister.

The society's website says that it can find no attribution for the "success is not final" quote, nor for a related statement sometimes attributed to Churchill: "Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm."

According to the International Churchill Society, those lines "are found nowhere in his canon."

"An almost equal number of sources found online credit these sayings to Abraham Lincoln — but we have found none that provides any attribution in the Lincoln Archives," it adds.