MANCHESTER, N.H. — Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley greeted voters in Hampton on Tuesday morning as her campaign insisted she would not quit the race, even as polls showed her lagging former President Donald Trump.
Ms. Haley, a former South Carolina governor, trailed Mr. Trump by 18 percentage points in the latest primary tracking poll by Suffolk University.
The day began with some good news for Ms. Haley. All six voters in Dixville Notch voted for her after its polls opened at midnight Monday.
In Hampton, Ms. Haley greeted supporters and called on New Hampshire voters to choose her over the legally embattled Mr. Trump.
She recounted all the girls she had met along the campaign trail. Some gave her friendship bracelets, which she showed to reporters.
“It’s something special,” Ms. Haley said. “This is such a reminder of why I’m doing this. I don’t want my kids to live like this, and I don’t want anybody else’s kids to live like this. Let’s stop the chaos, and let’s move forward.”
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Ms. Haley, 51, has promoted herself as a conservative leader from a new generation free of the vendettas and attacks she said would plague Mr. Trump, 77, in a rematch with President Biden, 81.
Ms. Haley was expected to gain significant support from the state’s large bloc of undeclared voters, who could vote in the party primary.
Mr. Trump accused her of courting Democrats who want to block him from the November ballot because he is a more significant threat to Mr. Biden.
Ms. Haley’s campaign said she wouldn’t quit regardless of the outcome Tuesday night.
Her campaign scheduled a rally for Wednesday in Charleston ahead of South Carolina’s Feb. 24 primary.
In a strategy memo Tuesday, campaign manager Betsy Ankney outlined a path for Ms. Haley after the New Hampshire primary involving the support of independent voters in states with open primaries.
In South Carolina, where Ms. Haley was governor from 2011-2017, all eligible voters can participate in the Republican primary if they skip the state’s Feb. 3 Democratic primary.
After South Carolina, Ms. Haley can win votes in Michigan, which also has an open primary. In the Super Tuesday contests on March 5, Ms. Ankney said, “there is significant fertile ground for Nikki” because 11 of the 16 primaries are open or partly open, with 874 delegates up for grabs.
The states include Virginia, Texas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina and Vermont, which the campaign said have “favorable demographics” for Ms. Haley.
Ms. Ankney said polls show that 50% of Republican primary voters want an alternative to Mr. Trump and 75% of voters nationwide don’t want a Biden-Trump rematch in November.
“And while members of Congress, the press and many of the weak-kneed fellas who ran for president are giving up and giving in, we aren’t going anywhere,” Ms. Ankney said.
Mr. Trump, in a bid to send the message that the party should unite around him as the presidential nominee, brought to the stage in New Hampshire a lineup of past Republican primary opponents who have endorsed him: biotechnology tycoon Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
Mr. Trump also received the endorsement of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who announced his exit from the race from Tallahassee on Sunday. Polls showed his support in New Hampshire in the single digits.
Mr. Trump, visiting a polling location in Londonderry on Tuesday, said he wasn’t concerned about Ms. Haley remaining in the race. “It doesn’t matter,” he said.
He told reporters that his campaign and the Make America Great Again movement had the power to unite the party and go on to defeat President Biden.
“There’s never been a movement like this, Make America Great Again, in the history of our country,” he said.
Pointing to the cheering crowd gathered behind him in Londonderry, he said, “This is organic.”
Mr. Trump said he would dominate the Feb. 8 contests in Nevada, with a Republican primary and a caucus, and win the Feb. 24 South Carolina primary.
Mr. Trump’s lead over Ms. Haley in South Carolina is 37 points, according to an average of polls calculated by the political statistics website FiveThirtyEight.
He has defined Ms. Haley as a “RINO” or Republican-in-name-only candidate who is backed by Democratic donors eager to keep him off the November ballot.
Ms. Haley told voters that she stood a better chance than the former president of defeating Mr. Biden in November. She cited a poll late last year that gave her a 17-point advantage over Mr. Biden.
Mr. Trump said Ms. Haley could be politically damaged by remaining in the race.
“I think it’s going to hurt her,” he said, adding that it was up to her to decide to quit. “I would never ask anybody to pull out.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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