Senator Tim Scott, who was in the early stages of the race for the Republican nomination in November’s US presidential election before dropping out last year, endorsed Donald Trump on Friday during a campaign event in New Hampshire, a development that seen by observers as a heavy blow to one of the former president’s two remaining rivals, Nikki Haley.

The decision by the only African-American Republican senator was announced four days before a crucial partisan vote in the state of New Hampshire, where the tycoon is pitted against the former South Carolina governor and former UN ambassador.

The only other candidate left in the race is Florida Gov. Ron DeSandis, but he appears to have given up trying to win in New Hampshire and is instead seeking to win in South Carolina, Ms. Haley’s home state.

The Trump/Haley gap is 14 percentage points in New Hampshire, according to an average of polls as calculated by the specialist website 538. She is feverishly trying to narrow it, as the state is seen as having one of the biggest chances she will have. to defeat the former president and keep her campaign alive.

Mr Trump won the first party vote, in Iowa, by a margin described as historic.

The former president briefly thanked Mr Scott in a speech yesterday before blasting Ms Haley and his Democratic presidential successor, Joe Biden, who he is likely to face again in November.

He also managed an offensive tone against the Republican governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu, who has sided with Ms. Haley. Already, he has multiplied his attacks against his colleague in his government, not hesitating to use openly racist expressions, mocking her origin from India.

Nikki Haley also faced criticism for not addressing racism when addressing the causes of the American Civil War, instead insisting this week that racism never existed in the US.

Earlier yesterday, the only woman in the Republican race secured the endorsement of Phil Scott, the Republican governor of Vermont. Although a lesser-known figure than Senator Scott (a simple moniker) nationally, the governor is influential in neighboring New Hampshire.

Senator Scott, who yesterday supported Donald Trump because he said he could “unite the country” and “cut taxes”, had lashed out at the former president in 2017, judging that he had lost the “moral authority to govern”. after the then White House occupant’s statement about the bloody incidents at a counter-demonstration against a far-right march in Charlottesville, when he said there were “very good people” and “on both sides”.