(Web Desk) - Donald Trump cruised to a quick victory Tuesday in New Hampshire, marking the first time a non-incumbent presidential candidate has ever won both early states.
Within minutes of polls closing, the Associated Press called the race just after 8 p.m. for the former president, who was leading Republican rival Nikki Haley by as many as 20 percentage points in polling released on Election Day.
Trump, who carried Iowa by nearly 30 points on Jan. 15, is also leading Haley in all the polls of the next major early state, South Carolina, where she was governor before he picked her to be United Nations ambassador when he was president.
Trump is also well ahead of Haley in all other polls in other states.
But despite the long and historic odds against her, a defiant Haley vowed Tuesday to stay in the race.
"New Hampshire is first in the nation, it is not the last in the nation," she said. "This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go."
Fellow Republicans who have run for president say Haley is fooling herself.
“The general election begins today,” said Newt Gingrich, a former House Speaker who ran for president in 2012 and won South Carolina before he dropped out.
“No one has won both Iowa and New Hampshire before and not been the nominee. And no one from our party has lost both those states and won the nomination.”
To argue her point, Haley's campaign released a memo that played up her “underdog” status and pointed out that 11 of the 16 Super Tuesday states on March 5 have semi-open primaries in which non-Republicans can vote, as they did in New Hampshire.
A major flaw in Haley’s math: she was losing New Hampshire independents to Trump in pre-Election Day polls, albeit by a smaller margin.
Haley emphasized her plans to stay in the race Tuesday during a testy Fox & Friends appearance.
“I'm going to fight no matter what. I don't care how much y'all want to coronate Donald Trump,” she said. “At the end of the day, that’s not what Americans want. Americans want a choice. And we’re going to give them that same.”