Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips and his wife, Annalise, watched Republican candidate Nikki Haley speak on Tuesday following New Hampshire’s presidential primary election. Phillips took to the stage when Haley was done. (Glen Stubbe)

Opinion editor’s note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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The presidential election matchup much of the country dreads became increasingly inevitable in New Hampshire on Tuesday as former President Donald Trump won the Republican primary and President Joe Biden “won” a nonsanctioned primary as a write-in candidate.

But both of their top challengers vowed to fight on.

The race is “far from over,” Republican runner-up Nikki Haley told supporters, pledging to carry the campaign to her home state of South Carolina. But there, as nationwide with GOP voters, polls show a sizable lead for Trump, who characteristically was not magnanimous over his 54.4% to 43.3% victory on Tuesday. Dropping his post-Iowa-caucuses call for unity, a visibly irritated Trump tried to denigrate Haley — just as he has every opponent since his initial run in 2016 — and added: “I don’t get too angry — I get even.”

Haley shouldn’t be intimidated. But she should be realistic. Trump’s transformation of a once-principled party to one ready to nominate a twice-impeached ex-president facing four indictments and 91 criminal charges is now almost complete. But Haley can offer an alternative, focusing on what used to be core Republican, indeed American, values like standing by allies and standing up to the truth. Voter polls in Iowa and New Hampshire show that a majority of Republicans in those states believe Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.

In the same vein, Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., has every right — and in fact sees it as a responsibility — to also continue his candidacy. Although in a Wednesday interview with an editorial writer, Phillips clarified comments he had made days earlier about potentially running as a third-party candidate. He intends to remain a Democrat, he said, and would endorse Biden if the president is renominated.

But for now, “we’re on our way to South Carolina,” Phillips said, where he hopes to “listen and learn.”

And yet, like every candidate, he also has to talk. In our view, he would benefit from leavening his dire warnings of a Biden renomination with what a Phillips administration would look like, emphasizing not just political but policy differences with the president. In just one example, Phillips said that based on two trips to the southern border he’s “a rare Democrat telling America the truth: It is an unmitigated, inhumane and national security disaster that has gone unmet, unattended to, and it’s almost irresponsible in the lack of attention to a real American tragedy.”

Among several other contrasts with Biden is endorsing “Medicare for All” and more of an acknowledgment that despite recent upbeat economic news, “life is unaffordable for far too many.” Among Phillips’ proposed responses is establishing “American Dream Accounts” that would give every American child $1,000 at birth and $500 annually until they are 18 in order to provide a foundation for their adult lives.

“Democracy dies without competition; it dies without debate, and it dies with suppression,” Phillips said. “And the sad truth is that we are facing all of these right now, and I consider this to be a profoundly consequential moment in our history, so I will continue.”

While he acknowledged South Carolina is “home turf” for Biden, Phillips said “that’s exactly why I should be there — to show up and give voters a voice and to do what unfortunately the president right now is not, which is facing voters, answering questions, doing town halls, doing debates, even doing press conferences, and I intend to make my case that he should and he must, if he stands any chance of restoring some of the faith in a future with him as president.”

For the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which believes campaigns matter, it’s hard to argue against more debate, especially for a democracy under strain from Trump’s unprecedented and unpresidential actions. Those actions should remind voters that while a majority may in fact recoil at a rematch, a false equivalency should be avoided. Trump’s behavior and steady stream of lies during and after his presidency, let alone the revenge he pledges, are a unique risk to the country and the world.