New Hampshire and Iowa are two very different places, but Republican primary and caucus voters in both states were similarly aligned in handing former President Donald Trump two victories in the leadoff nominating contests, exit polls show.
As in Iowa, a plurality of New Hampshire GOPers (42%) considered immigration the most important issue in the 2024 race — and Trump won that group by a margin of more than three-to-one over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (73% to 22%), according to the Fox News Voter analysis.
The former president also bested Haley by double digits (53% to 40%) among the 31% of Granite State voters who said the economy and jobs were the most important issues.
As predicted, Haley won big among Republican New Hampshire primary voters who considered themselves independent and Democratic-leaning.
Undeclared voters made up 13% of the GOP primary electorate, and went for Haley over Trump by a count of 60% to 33%.
The margin was even more pronounced among self-declared Democratic leaners, who made up 10% of the electorate and went for Haley at a rate of 89% to 3% for Trump.
Haley also dominated Trump 63% to 30% among New Hampshire voters who considered foreign policy the most important issue of the 2024 race.
Unfortunately for Haley, however, that group only made up 8% of the primary vote.
Conversely, more than half of primary voters (52%) said the US should be “less active” in world affairs, and backed Trump by 43 percentage points over Haley (68% to 25%)
AP Votecast surveys of Granite State voters showed stark differences from their Iowa brethren on the issue of abortion, most notably so-called “heartbeat laws” that bar most terminations after six week of pregnancy.
Nearly two-thirds (65%) of Iowa GOP caucus participants support such bans, with more than half of that cohort (55%) supporting Trump.
While just 40% of New Hampshire Republican primary voters supported such restrictions, more than 7 in 10 of those backed the former president.
Clear majorities of both New Hampshire (63%) and Iowa (78%) Republicans back bans on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
In both contests, the bulk of that cohort went strongly for the 77-year-old 45th president; 64% in New Hampshire and 52% in Iowa.
One point of divergence was the percentage of Republican voters who consider themselves supporters of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
While 62% of Iowa caucus-goers answered yes — with 74% of them supporting Trump — New Hampshire GOP voters were almost evenly split, with 49% calling themselves MAGA-heads and 50% saying they were not.
Ultimately, a whopping 87% of Granite State MAGA supporters went for Trump, while nearly a quarter of those who said they were not red hat wearers (23%) backed the 45th president anyway.