Republican leaders, who had hoped to bring a swift and orderly resolution to the party's presidential primaries, have all but abandoned hope that the nomination will be decided without a long and costly fight stretching well into the spring.<br />Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary dashed those hopes.<br />Despite strenuous efforts to overtake Donald J. Trump, none of his mainstream Republican opponents stood out from the pack.<br />Now, they are left to muddle forward with no particular momentum into the next contests, in South Carolina and Nevada.<br />If any strong alternative to Mr. Trump is to emerge, senior Republicans say, it will most likely come only after a long nomination fight, spanning dozens of states and costing many millions of dollars.<br />At this stage, his most formidable rival appears to be Ted Cruz, the hard-right Texas senator who won last week’s Iowa caucuses, and who is even less acceptable to traditional party leaders than Mr. Trump.
