Donald Trump secured his second victory in the Republican 2024 presidential primaries on Tuesday with a comfortable win in New Hampshire. Despite the win, the former president and his allies are still whining, claiming the race was marred by fraud perpetrated by … undeclared voters?
Trump’s sole remaining opponent, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, managed to close the gap between herself and Trump, making significant strides among independent and undeclared voters participating in the primary, a practice that is legal in New Hampshire so long as the participant chooses a Republican or Democratic ballot at the time of their vote. Last week, Trump railed at a New Hampshire rally that left-leaning groups were attempting to “infiltrate” the election to swing the outcome in Haley’s favor.
“These are fake numbers, Nikki Haley does not have this much support,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) told Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN) after the race was called. “She’s gonna come out and claim that she’s rising in the polls, and all these fake news media people … and going to claim that ‘Nikki Haley is rising in the polls.’ It’s a total, complete lie.”
In his victory speech on Tuesday night, Trump repeated the false claim that the Republican primary “accepts Democratic to vote.”
“I think they had 4,000 Democrats before October 6th, they already voted. Now, they’re only voting because they want me to look as bad as possible, because, if you remember, we won in 2016, and if you really remember — and if you want to play it straight —- we also won in 2020,” he said. Trump, despite his delusions, actually lost his bid for re-election in 2020.
Greene made similar claims on X, writing that “for the first time in history, according to exit polls — there are more Democrats and Independents than Republicans participating in the Republican primary.”
Registered Democrats cannot legally vote in the New Hampshire Republican primary, not that reality has ever interfered with the ramblings of Trump, Greene, and other MAGA influencers crying foul.
“Why are Republicans even allowing Democrats to infiltrate GOP Primaries like this?” Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son, wrote on X. “We need closed GOP primaries in every state across the country, so its only Republicans voting in them. Democrats shouldn’t get a say in who Republicans nominate!!!”
As with past New Hampshire elections, several groups have encouraged undeclared or Democratic voters in the Granite State to vote against the nomination of a specific candidate. In Haley’s case, an investigation by Politico found that the largest group working to mobilize undeclared and Democratic voters in her favor had only managed to convince 3,500 people to switch their party affiliation — little more than a drop in the state’s pool of over a million registered voters. But the number is enough to convince Trump’s staunchest supporters that there are shenanigans afoot.
One point of confusion among Trump’s sycophants is the misconception that a vote in a primary is akin to a binding contract obligating the voter to support the candidate or party they choose through the general election.
“Ultra-liberal Hanover, NH had just 841 Republican votes in the 2020 general election. Tonight, the same town has 1,472 votes for Nikki Haley,” Charlie Kirk, founder of the right-wing advocacy group Turning Point USA, wrote on X. “This is Democrat election interference, enabled by an insane open-primary system.”
Kirk pointed to interviews conducted by cable news networks with undeclared voters, who expressed their dislike for Trump and stated their willingness to vote against him in the primaries even if they ultimately chose not to vote Republican in November. Again, this is a perfectly legal thing for an undeclared voter to do in the state of New Hampshire. States’ rights and all.
“SMOKING GUN,” Kirk wrote in a separate post. “CNN has a New Hampshire voter who is voting for Nikki Haley in the GOP primary and will switch his vote to Joe Biden in the general election. This is an OUTRAGE. This must be fixed immediately.”
Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec called support for Haley among college-educated voters “the infiltrator vote.” The Federalist CEO Sean Davis wrote that it was “Pretty hilarious that Nikki Haley couldn’t win even when her base — left-wing Democrats — was allowed and encouraged to rig a primary in her favor.”
Trump has stopped short of outright claiming election interference — he won after all — but the former president made several pointed remarks on social media as the night unfolded.
“SO RIDICULOUS THAT DEMOCRATS AND INDEPENDENTS ARE ALLOWED TO VOTE IN THE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY, ESPECIALLY SINCE CROOKED JOE BIDEN HAS ABANDONED NEW HAMPSHIRE—BUT WORD IS WE ARE DOING REALLY WELL!!!” he before the results came in on Truth Social.
“We are doing really well despite all of the Biden Votes going for Haley!!!” he added in a separate post.
Trump and his allies may complain that the structure of the New Hampshire primaries allows undeclared voters to participate in the primary of their choosing. Despite leading a party obsessed with states’ rights, including a state’s right to run its own election, the former president and his allies have made a habit of claiming election interference over any voting structure that requires them to do more than grandstand — even when they win.
