BEDFORD, New Hampshire — Donald Trump appeared poised to clinch his first victory in Tuesday’s first-in-the-nation primary following a humbling second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, speaking confidently about his chances Monday while his Republican opponents mostly attacked each other.
The billionaire Trump has held a commanding lead in New Hampshire preference polls for months as candidates race to collect delegates for parties’ nominating conventions later this year.
Ted Cruz, the Texas senator who won in Iowa, is in the mix in New Hampshire with Iowa third-place finisher Marco Rubio and a trio of governors seeking to stop Rubio’s rise after his uneven debate performance over the weekend.
At the heart of the battle between Rubio and Chris Christie, John Kasich and Jeb Bush is whether the Florida senator has the experience.
Without a strong showing, each will face enormous pressure to drop out from Republican Party leaders eager to rally around a single establishment candidate who can challenge the outspoken Cruz and Trump.
The Democratic race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders swerved in a new direction after a pair of prominent Clinton supporters criticized female voters who support Sanders despite the prospect of electing the first female president.
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said over the weekend that there was “a special place in hell” for women who don’t help women, while writer and famed feminist Gloria Steinem suggested that women backing Sanders were doing so to meet boys.
Steinem later apologized in a Facebook post for suggesting young women weren’t serious about their political views.
“Young women are active, mad as hell about what’s happening to them,” Steinem wrote. “Whether they gravitate to Bernie or Hillary, young women are activist and feminist in greater numbers than ever before.”