Trump leads a Republican field that has been in flux in the final days of campaigning across snowy New Hampshire.
Advertisement
Last Monday, the Florida senator emerged with a stronger-than-expected third-pace finish in Iowa that had the press and pundits speculating about a Rubio nomination.
After a surprisingly strong third-place showing in last week’s Iowa caucuses, Rubio came into New Hampshire hoping for a top-tier finish in the state to buttress his argument he is the candidate around whom the party establishment should rally. Sanders won over all four Democratic voters in the town, while Ohio Governor John Kasich sneaked past Trump, 3-2, among Republicans.
“You have given me the chance to go on to South Carolina”, Bush said.
At Vox, we think it’s significant enough to report.
The enmity was mutual. Bush fired back on twitter later Monday morning, writing, “you aren’t just a loser, you are a liar and a whiner”.
“She just said a bad thing”, Trump declared. He took a slight jab at former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost to Democratic presidential rival Sen.
Among the candidates showing less exuberance about New Hampshire is Ben Carson.
Rubio, Kasich, Bush and Chris Christie struggled over who could consolidate the support of moderate or establishment-minded Republicans.
Christie created a new dynamic by repeatedly challenging Rubio in the GOP debate at Saint Anselm College on Saturday night. Tuesday night, Trump is hosting a “primary watch party” at a banquet hall in Manchester.
“OK you’re not allowed to say and I never expect to hear that from you again”. “I would never say a word like that”.
Sensing Mr Rubio’s vulnerability, almost everyone seemed to be on the attack.
Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray found that other campaigns have done better at voter contact in New Hampshire than Chris Christie’s campaign. In a RCP average of SC polls taken between January 15 and January 23, the same five candidates held leading spots.
“I believe that was it. All the signs were that he had momentum”, said Kurt Wright, a representative in the Vermont general assembly, who anxious that Rubio’s stumble undercut a core rationale for his candidacy, that he was best-positioned to defeat Hillary Clinton, who remains the favorite for the Democratic nomination despite a resounding defeat Tuesday to Bernie Sanders, of neighboring Vermont. These were not famously waffling New Hampshire voters, though; when state party vice chairman Matt Mayberry asked the crowd how many were still undecided, very few people raised their hands.
Only hours from the primary, new clouds gathered around the Clinton campaign following a Politico report that the candidate and her husband were disappointed with the direction of her campaign and that a staff shakeup could be in the offing.
Trump, for his part, hinted Sunday that he understands how crucial New Hampshire is to his campaign.
The former first lady insisted it was all overblown.
Members of the group – organized by the New Jersey Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents more than 10,000 transit workers – said they wanted to warn locals against voting for Christie.
“Tomorrow is going to be the beginning – I hear we have a lead”. Instead, he appeared to be displacing other candidates who did bet their futures on the Granite State, a possible death blow to at least one or two campaign rivals.
Advertisement
“Tonight, we did not wind up where we wanted to be but that does not change where we’ll end up at the end of this election”, Rubio said to raucous applause in a ballroom at the Radisson Hotel in Manchester, which stayed crowded even after it became apparent that Rubio did not do as well as hoped.
