Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley put on a good face after Monday night's convincing loss in the New Hampshire primary to front-runner Donald Trump, stressing to her supporters that while the Granite State is first-in-the-nation, "it is not last in the nation."
Further, she conceded the primary loss to Trump but did not concede her candidacy.
"This race is far from over," Haley told the crowd.
However, Newsmax primary analysts said the problem for Haley is that she gave her concession speech with less than one-third of the votes in. In other words, losing a state she needed to win and having it called so early is "psychologically devastating."
"Look, this race being called at 8:02 (p.m. ET) is just a gut punch for Nikki Haley," Newsmax political analyst and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said during primary coverage. "I'm just telling you, having been in the room, when you get a race called this early, and you have early returns showing you're actually doing well in some areas, and you think you might be able to pull it off, and then they call this race …
"Just psychologically, this is devastating. Having been in the room, this is devastating for them to have this called this early."
And regardless of how close the margin of defeat ends up for Haley, it doesn't matter — she needed a win in New Hampshire, pollster John Zogby told Newsmax.
"There's no such thing, in my view, as a good showing if you're Nikki Haley. She has to win," Zogby told Newsmax. "Because this is the ultimate portrait of the voters that she needs in order to move forward. And losing by five, losing by 10, losing by 1 isn't gonna cut it, even in her own state of South Carolina."
But Haley was undeterred in her concession speech.
"I want to congratulate Donald Trump on his victory tonight. He earned it. And I want to acknowledge that," Haley told supporters. "Now you've all heard the chatter among the political class. They're falling all over themselves, saying this race is over. Well, I have news for all of them. New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last in the nation.
"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," she went on.
"We still have a ways to go, but we keep moving up."
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Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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