Remarks Following the New Hampshire Primary Election in Concord, New Hampshire

[As prepared for delivery]

I congratulate Donald Trump on his victory tonight. He earned it. And I want to acknowledge that.

Now, you've all heard the chatter among the political class. They're falling all over themselves saying this race is over.

Well, I have news for all of them. New Hampshire is first in the nation. It's not last in the nation. This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go. And the next one is my sweet state of South Carolina!

At one point in this campaign, there were fourteen of us running, and we were at two percent in the polls. Well, I'm a fighter. Now, we're the last one standing next to Donald Trump, and today we got close to half of the vote. We still have a ways to go, but we keep moving up.

For a lot of people, politics is way too personal. It's not personal for me.

I voted for Trump twice. I was proud to serve America in his Cabinet. I agree with many of his policies.

I decided to run because I'm worried about the future of our country, and because it's time to put the negativity and chaos behind us.

We have an economy that is crushing middle class Americans. We have a border that is totally open and dangerous, creating a disaster in our country. We have schools that are failing too many of our children. And we have a world on fire, with war in Europe and the Middle East, and a huge and growing threat from China.

And then you look at Washington. We have a Congress that fights about everything and accomplishes nothing. And we have Joe Biden in the White House, making one bad decision after another, when he's making any decisions at all.

Our country's in a real mess. And the question is, who's going to fix it?

With Donald Trump, Republicans have lost almost every competitive election. We lost the Senate. We lost the House. We lost the White House. We lost in 2018, in 2020 and in 2022.

The worst kept secret in politics is how badly the Democrats want to run against Trump. They know Trump is the only Republican in the country who Biden can defeat.

You can't fix the mess if you don't win the election. A Trump nomination is a Biden win and a Kamala Harris presidency.

I defeat Biden handily.

With Donald Trump, you have one bout of chaos after another. This court case, that controversy, this tweet, that senior moment. You can't fix Joe Biden's chaos with Republican chaos.

The other day, Donald Trump accused me of not providing security at the Capitol on January 6th. I've long called for mental competency tests for politicians over the age of 75. Trump claims he'd do better than me on one of those tests. Maybe he would, and maybe he wouldn't.

But if he thinks that, then he should have no problem standing on a debate stage with me!

Most Americans do not want a rematch between Biden and Trump. The first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to win this election. I say it should be the Republicans!

So our fight is not over, because we have a country to save.

In the next two months, millions of voters in over twenty states will have their say. We should honor them and allow them to vote. And guess what, in the next two months, Joe Biden isn't going to get any younger or any better. We'll have all the time we need to beat Biden.

When we get to South Carolina, Donald Trump is going to have a harder time falsely attacking me. The great people of South Carolina know I cut their taxes. They know I signed the toughest immigration bill in the country. They know we passed voter ID, and tort reform, and ethics reform, and they know we moved 35,000 people from welfare to work.

Every time I've run for office in South Carolina, I've beaten the political establishment. They're lined up against me again. That's no surprise. But South Carolina voters don't want a coronation. They want an election. And we're going to give them one.

Because we're just getting started!

Thank you for the energy and love, New Hampshire!

We're going home to South Carolina!