Will a last-minute boost to Nikki Haley’s campaign matter in New Hampshire?

This is either Nikki Haley’s moment or her last gasp.

A flurry of positive headlines on Monday gave the impression of a last-minute jolt in the arm for Ms Haley, the last remaining Trump alternative running for the Republican nomination. An endorsement by the conservative Wall Street Journal’s editorial board was released today, coinciding with 24 hours before voting began in neighbouring New Hampshire.

At the same time, that state’s Republican governor, Chris Sununu, published a pointed op-ed in New Hampshire’s biggest newspaper dubbing the former president “a loser” and blaming him for poor electoral performances by the GOP in 2020 and 2022.

Lastly, there’s the DeSantis equation. Despite the Florida governor dropping out after a failure to win the Iowa caucuses (faced with the prospect of an unfriendly primary calendar and stagnating donations) and endorsing Donald Trump, it appears that Mr Trump’s last remaining rival may have gotten the last laugh.

An official with the Haley campaign told The Dispatch’s David M Drucker that Ms Haley’s campaign had seen a surge in donations — more than a half million dollars — since Mr DeSantis dropped out on Sunday.

But will any of that matter? New Hampshire Republicans and the undeclared independents who vote in the state’s GOP primary have, according to most polling, largely decided to back Mr Trump for the Republican nomination. And just as Ms Haley’s campaign is seeing a silver lining to Mr DeSantis’s begrudging endorsement of Donald Trump, her opponent is laying the ground for his final victory.

Republicans in Washington began falling in line behind him just about the minute the Iowa caucus results were announced; Mr Trump now has the backing of more than half of the GOP