Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley has vowed to press on with her campaign in the wake of a second consecutive loss to Donald Trump.

Ms Haley had barnstormed New Hampshire ahead of Tuesday’s first-in-the-nation primary, courting both independent and moderate Republican voters.

But she was unable to catch Mr Trump, who had a comfortable eight-point lead in early returns from the election.

The former president last week won a landslide in Iowa’s caucuses.

Days later, Ms Haley became the last remaining rival to Mr Trump, with the sudden departure of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis from the Republican field.

At an election night party in Concord on Tuesday night, Ms Haley conceded the New Hampshire race, congratulating Mr Trump on his win.

But she vowed to take her bid to become the Republican White House candidate back home to South Carolina, the state where she served as governor.

“New Hampshire is first in the nation,” Ms Haley said to a boisterous room of supporters. “It is not the 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.”

In New Hampshire last weekend, as she campaigned through her 52nd birthday, the former UN ambassador had made her most forceful pitch yet, warning voters of Mr Trump’s friendships with “dictators”, questioning his mental acuity and slamming his “lies”.

But despite the Granite State’s sizable bloc of independent voters – those considered likely to favour Ms Haley – she could not close the considerable ground between herself and the former president.