New Hampshire GOP chairman claims Nikki Haley can win GOP primary in Granite State

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley can “absolutely” win the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary, Granite State GOP Chairman Chris Ager declared Friday. 

Haley is currently running in second place in New Hampshire, according to a RealClearPolitics average of polls, with 24.8% support, which puts her 21.5 percentage points behind former President Donald Trump with less than 4 weeks to go before the Jan. 23 first-in-the-nation primary.

“Expect the unexpected,” Ager told “Cats & Cosby Show” host John Catsimatidis. 

“You just don’t know what’s going to happen. The polling … over the past 6, 8 months has been that President Trump is in pretty good shape. But Nikki Haley has been making a surge,” he added. 

“I would say that Nikki Haley absolutely has the potential to win the New Hampshire primary,” Ager said. “It’s absolutely possible. She’s been here very frequently, and every time she comes, she does a town hall, and she takes questions from the audience unscripted, anybody.” 

The tactic, however, carries its risks, as Haley learned earlier this week when she faced criticism after answering a question at a Berlin, NH, town hall about the cause of the Civil War. 

In her answer, Haley failed to mention slavery as one of the reasons. The following day she clarified, “Of course the Civil War was about slavery.”

She also accused the Biden campaign and the Democratic Party of sending a “plant” to pose the Civil War question to sabotage her event.

Ager noted that there are two upcoming debates that will take place in New Hampshire – one on Jan. 18 hosted by ABC News and WMUR-TV and another on Jan. 21 that will air on CNN – and with same-day voting, if “somebody catches fire, this is the place they can do that.” 

Haley secured the endorsement of popular Republican New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu earlier this month, boosting her chances in the upcoming contest. 

The former United Nations ambassador drew a crowd of more than 300 people Friday at her final event of the year in the Granite State before heading to Iowa for more campaigning ahead of the Hawkeye State’s Jan. 15 caucus.