Updated 2:37 p.m.
The race for the Republican and Democratic presidential nominations will converge in New Hampshire on Tuesday in the first primary election of the season — though on the Democratic side, the contest may count only for bragging rights.
It will test former President Donald Trump’s Republican front-runner status in a state he carried by a comfortable margin in the 2016 primary. But New Hampshire has a considerably more moderate electorate than the one that delivered Trump a big win in last week’s Iowa caucuses.
It will also test former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s ability to establish herself as the main alternative to Trump, as she’s claimed on the campaign trail. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who edged Haley for second place in Iowa, suspended his campaign Sunday and endorsed Trump.
On the Democratic side, President Joe Biden won’t appear on the ballot, since the contest violates the national party rules he pushed for. But Biden supporters have mounted a write-in effort on his behalf. Among the Democratic candidates whose names will appear on the ballot are U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota and 2020 candidate Marianne Williamson.
Dean Phillips shakes hands at voting site
Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips was spotted earlier in the day shaking the hands of poll workers and voters at a school gymnasium in Derry.
The Minnesota congressman entered the race in October in an event outside New Hampshire’s statehouse, saying, “It is time for the torch to be passed to a new generation of American leaders.”
Phillips is highly unlikely to wrest the Democratic presidential nomination away from Biden, even if the president suffers an embarrassing loss Tuesday in a state where he's not even on the ballot. Still, his run offers a symbolic challenge to national Democrats trying to project the idea that there is no reason to doubt the president’s electability.
Trump forecasts a ‘big loss’ for Haley in New Hampshire
Trump is predicting that Haley will likely have a “big loss” in New Hampshire.
Speaking at a polling site Tuesday afternoon, Trump insisted Haley wasn’t a threat to his campaign and said she is free to continue challenging him for the GOP nomination.
“I don’t care if she stays in. Let her do whatever she wants,” he said. “It doesn’t matter.”
He said he wouldn’t comment on whether he’d spoken to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and whether he would consider him as his running mate. “I just can’t comment on that,” he said.
New Hampshire weather a vast improvement over Iowa's
The weather for New Hampshire's primary has been much kinder to voters than the record-setting cold last week for Iowa’s caucuses.
Temperatures in New Hampshire on Tuesday started out in the low 20s and reached 30s by early afternoon, much warmer than the last few days when temperatures struggled to get out of the teens. Some light snow was possible Tuesday night, around the time that polls close.
Iowa’s Jan. 15 vote was the lowest-turnout caucuses in a quarter-century. The high temperature in the capital city, Des Moines, that day was 1 degree Fahrenheit, with the temperature falling to minus-17 by sundown.
Haley vows to stay in race as Trump seeks commanding victory in New Hampshire
Haley is vowing to stay in the race even if Trump wins New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation GOP primary.
The former U.N. ambassador has focused considerable resources in New Hampshire, hoping to capitalize on the state’s independent streak as she looks for an upset or at least a tight loss that could dent Trump’s continued domination of Republican politics.
“I’m running against Donald Trump, and I’m not going to talk about an obituary,” Haley told reporters at a polling site in Hampton.
Regardless of how New Hampshire goes, she says, she plans to be in the race for South Carolina’s Feb. 24 primary.
“This has always been a marathon. It’s never been a sprint,” she said.
Republican hopes Trump chooses better White House advisers next time
Pat Sheridan, a Republican from Hampton, said he voted for Trump “because he did a really good job the first time.”
“We need a businessman, not bureaucrats,” said Sheridan, a 63-year-old engineer.
He said the most important issue to him was the economy. "Everything‘s just really bad right now,” he said.
If Trump returns to the White House, Sheridan hopes he will be more careful about choosing his Cabinet members and should bring in better advisers.
“I think he listened to a lot of people he shouldn’t have listened to,” he said.
81-year-old voter says 81-year-old Biden is too old
Independent voter Betsey Davis, an 81-year-old who described herself as “ancient,” said she voted for Dean Phillips in the Democratic primary.
Davis, who supports abortion rights and the “freedom to be,” said she would vote for Biden if he faces Trump again in the general election, but she’s not excited about it.
“I think he’s too old," she said, noting that they were the same age. “He may be a nice man, but nice doesn’t really count in politics.”
Asked what Biden would need to do to earn her enthusiastic vote in November, she said, “I’d like him to be stronger, much stronger. I’d like him to be able to get both parties together.”
Independent voter supports Haley, thinks Biden is too old
Laurie Dufour was surprised to see Haley, her favored candidate, show up at her polling place on Tuesday morning.
Dufour, 66, said she is an independent who tends to vote for Democrats but likes Haley.
“I did not want Trump, and she just sounded very knowledgeable,” she said. However, she noted that she supports abortion rights and “almost didn't vote for her” because of that.
Dufour said she would vote for Biden “in a heartbeat” over Trump in a general election but wishes he would consider stepping down.
“Mostly, I just think he’s too old. It’s sad — when I watch him, I could cry. It’s like watching your grandfather, you know?" Dufour said. “I think it’s time for him to let go.”
Haley says Dixville Notch sweep gives her momentum
Haley says her sweep of tiny Dixville Notch is a good start that gives her campaign momentum heading into the day.
“Right now we'll take whatever we can take,” Haley told reporters while visiting a polling place in Hampton on Tuesday morning. She said she was grateful for the six registered voters in the resort town who turned out to vote for her.
Haley also vowed to continue with her campaign even if she doesn't have a good night in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary.
“We’re going to South Carolina. We have put in the ad buy. We are there. This has always been a marathon. It’s never been a sprint. We wanted to be strong in Iowa. We wanted to be stronger than that in New Hampshire. We’re going to be even stronger than that in South Carolina,” she said.
Nikki Haley sweeps Dixville Notch's primary, winning all 6 votes
The six registered voters of tiny Dixville Notch in New Hampshire all cast their ballots for Nikki Haley at midnight on Tuesday, giving her a clean sweep over former President Donald Trump and all the other candidates.
The resort town was the first place in the nation to vote in the 2024 primaries. The voters were outnumbered more than 10-to-1 by reporters from every corner of the globe — not to mention by a pile of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
Dixville Notch has a tradition of first-in-the-nation voting that dates back to 1960, with the results announced just a few minutes after midnight.
With such a tiny sample of voters, the results are not typically indicative of how an election will end up. But they do provide for an early curiosity.
In some previous elections, a couple of other tiny New Hampshire towns have also voted at midnight, but this year Dixville Notch went it alone.
Dixville Notch caters to snowmobilers and Nordic skiers in the winter, and golfers and hikers in the summer. For the primary, it had four registered Republicans and two undeclared voters.
How does New Hampshire’s primary work?
The New Hampshire presidential primaries will be held on Tuesday. The last polls in the state close at 8 p.m. ET, although polls in most of the state close at 7 p.m. ET and some close at 7:30 p.m. ET. In tiny Dixville Notch, which has only a handful of residents, polls open at midnight ET and close a few minutes later once all voters have cast a ballot.
The Republican primary ballot will list the names of 24 candidates, including DeSantis, Haley and Trump. The ballot also includes the names of other candidates who have dropped out, such as Chris Christie, Asa Hutchinson, Vivek Ramaswamy and others. The Democratic ballot will list the names of 21 candidates, including Phillips and Williamson. Biden will not be listed on the ballot.
Registered party members may vote only in their party’s primary. In other words, registered Democrats may vote only in the Democratic primary, and registered Republicans may vote only in the Republican primary. Independent or unaffiliated voters may vote in either primary. New voters may register on primary day at a polling site, but the deadline to change party affiliation for voters who are already registered was in October. Seventeen-year-olds who will turn 18 by the November general election may vote in the primary.
For Republicans, statewide primary results will be used to determine how many of New Hampshire’s 22 Republican National Convention delegates each candidate has won. Delegates are allocated to candidates in proportion to their share of the statewide vote, although a candidate must receive at least 10 percent of the vote to qualify for delegates. Any unallocated delegates are awarded to the statewide winner. Unlike some other states, New Hampshire Republican delegates are not allocated by congressional district.
For Democrats, no delegates will be allocated based on the results of the primary, according to the Democratic National Committee, which governs the nomination process.
Trump won a competitive New Hampshire primary in 2016 with 35 percent of the vote, more than double the showing of his nearest competitor, then-Ohio Gov. John Kasich. He did best in the state’s heavily Republican areas, outperforming Kasich by a nearly 4-1 ratio. Trump fared less well in the state’s heavily Democratic areas, although he still finished slightly ahead of Kasich in those parts of the state.
In Iowa, Haley performed best in the state’s more Democratic-friendly areas, but she finished with more votes than the former president in only one county. To be competitive against Trump in New Hampshire, she’ll surely need to beat Trump outright in the state’s Democratic strongholds. If Trump posts big margins in these areas, including in Concord and Portsmouth, he’s likely on his way to a decisive win statewide.