The battle now heads to South Carolina, where Bush already was campaigning Wednesday on a national security message he hopes will resonate with the state’s large numbers of active-duty military personnel and veterans.
“He needed to be in the game, and last night, he was able to do so,” said Barry Wynn, a former South Carolina Republican Party chairman, who is raising money for Bush. Although Donald Trump tops GOP polls in the Palmetto State, Wynn denounced the billionaire’s “Kardashian-style vulgarity.”
“I don’t think that sells as well in the South, as it does in New England,” he said. “You may find that South Carolina corrects some of the mistakes of New Hampshire.”
Bush entered the presidential race last year with the biggest war chest and the best-known name in the Republican primary field but fell behind the pack after unsteady performances on the campaign trail and in the early GOP debates.
David Beightol, a Washington lobbyist who signed on as an early fundraiser for Bush’s campaign, called the New Hampshire results a “nice re-set.”
Bush’s task now is “to convince people that although he has an establishment name, he’s anti-establishment in his actions,” Beightol said, citing Bush’s confrontations with teachers’ unions and use of the line-item veto as Florida governor.
Bush could be helped by the departure of two rivals. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina ended their bids for the Republican nomination Wednesday after finishing sixth and seventh, respectively, in New Hampshire. Read more.
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