*(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump will win New Hampshire’s Republican presidential primary, CNN projects, defeating former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and moving him closer to a rematch with President Joe Biden this fall.
Trump’s victory, eight days after a big win in the Iowa caucuses, marks the first time in the modern primary era that the same candidate has won both the Iowa and New Hampshire Republican contests and further solidifies his hold on the GOP.
Meanwhile, President Biden will win the New Hampshire primary, CNN projects, calming the anxieties of Democrats concerned that lagging enthusiasm over his campaign and the absence of his name from the ballot could add up to an embarrassing defeat.
Those worries led Biden loyalists to launch an unofficial write-in campaign for the president, encouraging rank-and-file Democrats to go to the polls to make a show of support for the incumbent president. He was not among the 21 candidates listed on the ballot after New Hampshire defied the primary calendar set by the National Democratic Party.
While the Biden campaign will welcome the result as a positive sign of enthusiasm for the 81-year-old’s reelection bid, the victory is just that: symbolic. Because of the internal party clash, Biden did not register for the primary and the results will not yield any nominating delegates. The byproduct of the infighting was an unusually tense run-up to the contest amid concerns that the president, already struggling to excite the Democratic base, could fail to rouse enough support to avoid what would have been a mortifying result.
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