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Republican presidential candidates high-tailed it out of Iowa after Monday’s caucuses, hitting the campaign trail in New Hampshire Tuesday with just one week until the Granite State primary.
NBC’s Matt Dixon, Natasha Korecki and Jonathan Allen laid out the stakes ahead of the New Hampshire primary, with DeSantis in “survival mode.” The Florida governor is opting to focus more on South Carolina, as former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and former President Donald Trump duke it out in New England, where DeSantis and his allies are hoping a Haley loss could boost his campaign.
Haley declined to directly answer if New Hampshire is a must-win, telling NBC News’ Emma Barnett that she needs “to get stronger” in the Granite State. Haley hit the campaign trail Tuesday with GOP Gov. Chris Sununu and held a town hall in Bretton Woods, Barnett and NBC’s Greg Hyatt report.
Trump held his own campaign event in Atkinson, where entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy joined him onstage after endorsing the former president (and the crowd cheered “Veep” as Ramaswamy ended his remarks), per NBC’s Katherine Koretski.
DeSantis did travel to New Hampshire later on Tuesday after first campaigning in South Carolina. His only public event in the Granite State was canceled due to the bad weather, per NBC’s Alec Hernández, but DeSantis did participate in a CNN town hall from New Hampshire.
In other campaign news …
Not debatable: ABC canceled its New Hampshire primary debate originally scheduled for Thursday after DeSantis was the only candidate to commit to participating. Haley had said she would participate if Trump also agreed to do so.
Under pressure: Haley’s donors are pressuring her to defeat Trump in New Hampshire, or at least be very competitive, CNBC’s Brian Schwartz reports.
Trump trial: Trump traveled to New York before heading up to New Hampshire to attend jury selection for his defamation damages trial involving writer E. Jean Carroll, per NBC’s Adam Reiss and Dareh Gregorian. Trump was found liable last year for sexually abusing Carroll.
Asa, out: After a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Tuesday that he is ending his presidential bid, per NBC’s Jillian Frankel.
Party time: The New York Times reports that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s effort to get onto the ballot as an independent has led him to try to create his own political party in a handful of states.
Ballot challenges: Multiple transgender candidates in Ohio are facing challenges to their efforts to qualify for the ballot after they did not use their former names on their petitions.
Two paths forward: NBC News’ Allan Smith shares the story of two state Republican parties — in Michigan and Pennsylvania — and how their paths diverged after losses in the 2022 midterms.
Remaking the GOP: NBC News’ Chuck Todd examines some of the most notable shifts in Trump’s favor among the GOP over the last eight years, including the share of Iowa’s caucusgoers who now say that Trump “shares their values” more than the other Republican presidential candidates.