Here's the latest from the 2024 campaign trail:
- Live coverage on this blog has ended. Click here for the latest updates.
- Former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley are campaigning in New Hampshire six days out from the primary.
- DeSantis will return to New Hampshire on Friday for events hosted by his super PAC Never Back Down before he hits the campaign trail in South Carolina.
- New Hampshire Republicans want to see Haley campaign more aggressively as she looks to cut into Trump's polling lead.
- Two new polls show Trump hitting the 50% mark in New Hampshire, with Haley a distant second and DeSantis in single digits.
- E. Jean Carroll testified about Trump at a New York trial seeking damages for defamation, with the former president in attendance.
New Hampshire primary 101
The process, makeup and history of the coming New Hampshire primary couldn’t be more different from what we saw in the Iowa caucuses.
For one thing, New Hampshire’s contest is a primary. Unlike in Iowa, where GOP caucusgoers had to arrive at a designated time to conduct party business and then vote, New Hampshire’s voters have all day to show up and cast their ballots. There is no early or absentee voting, however.
Then there’s New Hampshire’s famed independent/undeclared voters, who outnumber both registered Democrats and Republicans in the state. In Iowa on Monday, just a combined 18% of caucusgoers were either independents or crossover Democrats, according to the entrance poll. But for next week’s New Hampshire primary, the expectation is that these voters will make up nearly half the GOP electorate.
That’s a big reason Trump’s lead in the New Hampshire polls is smaller than what we saw in Iowa.
Undeclared voters can also choose either a Republican or a Democratic ballot at their polling places. (The deadline for registered Democrats to change their party affiliations and vote in the GOP primary was Oct. 6.)
And that brings us to the last big difference between Iowa and New Hampshire. Unlike in Iowa on Monday, Democrats will be participating in New Hampshire, too — though the contest won’t count in the Democratic presidential nominating race.
Remember, because New Hampshire didn’t comply with the Democratic National Committee’s proposed primary calendar (which has South Carolina going first), the party has said this contest won’t be awarding delegates to the candidates who are on the ballot — like Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota and author Marianne Williamson.
But Democrats are launching a write-in campaign to bolster Biden, whose name won’t be on the ballot.
Trump rally in Portsmouth at capacity at just 320 people
The assistant fire chief at Trump's rally tonight in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, said the event was at capacity at 320 people, making it one of the former president's smaller gatherings on the campaign trail.
Trump typically holds events in larger venues that draw bigger crowds.
Trump remade the GOP. How permanent is it?
Was Trump buying or leasing the Republican Party when he descended that escalator in 2015?
At the time, many a longtime Republican tried to argue that Trump was no Republican, let alone a conservative. Just about every major figure in the party circa 2015 viewed him as an interloper, certainly not the avatar for what the GOP was then or would become later.
But eight years later, in the aftermath of Trump’s decisive caucus victory, it’s clear that he is no outsider anymore. He’s no “hijacker” of the GOP; he is the Republican Party. And, to the chagrin of a lot of small-government conservatives in my orbit, he has also redefined the very definition of the word “conservative” in the modern political dictionary.
Republicans in two key swing states are charting very different paths
For Republicans in Michigan and Pennsylvania, two critical swing states, the 2022 midterms followed a similar script.
Hugely divisive primaries. Fringe candidates backed by Trump ascending to the top of the statewide ballot. Electoral wipeouts that saw Republicans lose every contested statewide office and relinquish control of long-held branches of state legislatures.
Where Republicans in each state differed, though, is in the lessons they took from these defeats and how they are applying them to 2024.
Trump eyes Elise Stefanik as a potential VP pick
During a candlelit dinner with Mar-a-Lago members in late December, Trump walked around the table as the conversation turned to one of the biggest decisions he’d have to make should he become the Republican nominee: Whom should he pick to be his running mate?
That’s when Rep. Elise Stefanik, the hard-charging upstate New York Republican, came up, according to a person at the dinner table. Attendees around Trump raved about her viral moment just weeks before, when she grilled three university presidents at a congressional hearing about antisemitism on campus.
At the thought of Stefanik as a possible choice for vice president, Trump nodded approvingly.
“She’s a killer,” Trump said, according to the person at the event.
White House apologizes to Hutchinson after snarky DNC statement
The White House took the unusual step today of apologizing to former Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson over a snarky news release Biden’s party sent out after he withdrew from the race.
Jeff Zients, the White House chief of staff, called Hutchinson in the morning to offer an apology over the Democratic National Committee’s one-sentence statement after Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas, announced yesterday that he was ending his 2024 campaign after a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses the previous night.
“This news comes as a shock to those of us who could’ve sworn he had already dropped out,” the DNC said in a statement released by national press secretary Sarafina Chitika.
DeSantis to return to New Hampshire before South Carolina events
DeSantis will return to New Hampshire once more on Friday for an event hosted by Never Back Down, two PAC officials familiar with the planning told NBC News.
DeSantis will be in Florida tomorrow before returning to New Hampshire on Friday — the sources did not provide any further details about the end-of-week visit. DeSantis will then travel to South Carolina for campaign events Saturday and Sunday, as previously reported.
At this point, it still remains unclear where DeSantis will be spending Monday or Tuesday, which is primary day here in New Hampshire.
Never Back Down is now publicly advertising three DeSantis events on Friday: a town hall in Dover, a visit to a retail stop in Manchester and a town hall in Nashua.
Biden says his campaign raised $1.6 million after Trump won Iowa
Biden announced that his re-election campaign raised more than $1.6 million in the 24 hours after Trump won the Iowa GOP caucuses.
"Our campaign is nurses and teachers versus extreme MAGA Republicans, and we need you with us," Biden said in a video his campaign account posted to X. "It’s time to get on board."
Another New Hampshire poll shows Trump hitting 50%
A new poll from Saint Anselm College shows 52% of likely New Hampshire Republican primary voters are backing Trump, followed by 38% for Haley and 6% for DeSantis.
Trump and Haley both increased their support by 7 percentage points from last week's Saint Anselm survey, while DeSantis' share remained unchanged.
The latest poll shows Haley leading Trump among registered undeclared voters in the survey, but Trump leads her by a bigger margin among registered Republicans.
The results are in line with a Suffolk University/Boston Globe/NBC10 poll released this morning that showed Trump at 50%, Haley at 34% and DeSantis at 5% in the Granite State ahead of Tuesday’s primary.
The Saint Anselm poll of 1,398 likely New Hampshire GOP primary voters was conducted on Jan. 16 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.
New Hampshire Republicans ‘disappointed’ Haley isn’t fighting harder in the state
MANCHESTER, N.H. — As Republicans here seek a standard-bearer, Haley is making herself scarce, and GOP insiders say that could doom her long-shot bid to beat Trump in Tuesday’s primary.
Haley has forced the cancellation of two planned debates in New Hampshire — one sponsored by ABC News and the other by CNN — by refusing to go toe-to-toe with DeSantis. Her schedule is light on campaign stops in a state where candidates typically pack their days with events. And, since failing to identify slavery as a cause of the Civil War last month, she has stopped taking questions on stage from voters.
Haley’s team is gambling that less of her will end up being more in a race that is down to three candidates, with one of them — DeSantis — already having decided to pack it in and move his fading campaign to South Carolina.
That’s a bad bet, said Dave Carney, a veteran New Hampshire-based Republican strategist who described the state’s history of vetting presidential candidates through free-flowing town hall-style forums as sacred. Haley’s refusal to debate and take questions at her first post-Iowa event in the state could kill her campaign, he said.
“As an incumbent, maybe, or somebody who’s a front-runner — sure, you’re ahead, you’re not taking any risks,” Carney, who is neutral in the race, added. “But when you’re in second place? You need to throw f---ng Hail Marys. You have five nights left.”
DeSantis slams Trump and Haley for refusing to debate before the New Hampshire primary
HAMPTON, N.H. — DeSantis criticized Trump and Haley for not debating in New Hampshire ahead of the state's primary on Tuesday, even as his own campaign looks ahead to South Carolina.
“They won’t even debate on the WMUR debate,” DeSantis said, referring to the local New Hampshire news station’s quadrennial presidential primary debate. “Every single time we’ve had a New Hampshire primary, you do a debate with WMUR or at least do some debate in New Hampshire.”
“Donald Trump won’t debate and he’s not willing to defend his record. And Nikki Haley won’t debate because she’s not willing to defend her record. What does that say?” DeSantis continued.
Earlier today, a senior campaign official told NBC News that the governor will fly home to Florida tonight before spending the weekend campaigning in South Carolina.
This stop in Hampton was DeSantis’ first public event in New Hampshire since arriving yesterday afternoon after his super PAC, Never Back Down, canceled two previously planned events due to unsafe weather conditions. DeSantis participated in a televised town hall on CNN on Tuesday night. The governor has one more scheduled stop on his itinerary for today.
Maine judge puts on hold Trump ballot eligibility decision
A Maine judge today ordered the state's top election official to delay a decision on Trump’s ballot eligibility until the Supreme Court rules on a similar matter in Colorado.
“The Court believes it essential to factor in the risk of voter confusion should multiple administrative or judicial decisions addressing President Trump’s eligibility to appear on the primary ballot issue before the Supreme Court rules in Anderson,” Justice Michaela Murphy of Maine Superior Court wrote.
In today’s filing, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows was “ordered to await the Supreme Court’s decision” in the Colorado case and issue a new ruling that modifies, withdraws or confirms her earlier ruling, no later than 30 days after the Supreme Court decision is issued.
Trump had appealed earlier this month after Bellows, a Democrat, ruled in December that the former president is ineligible for the state’s Republican primary ballot because of his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden.
Harris says she's 'scared as heck' of a second Trump term
Vice President Kamala Harris said that she was “scared as heck” about the possibility of a second Trump term during an interview with ABC’s “The View.”
She framed the upcoming election as a choice between “competence versus chaos.”
“We’ve got to earn re-election and we have to communicate what we have achieved,” Harris said.
Addressing recent comments from Haley that “America is not a racist country,” Harris said that “there is no denying that we have in our history as a nation racism.”
Dueling TV ads released in New York special election
With less than a month to go before the special election in New York's 3rd District to replace ousted GOP Rep. George Santos, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee released new TV ads today.
The DCCC ad called GOP candidate Mazi Melesa Pilip a member of the "extreme wing of the Republican Party." And the NRCC ad called Democratic candidate Tom Suozzi, "[New York Democratic Gov. Kathy] Hochul's hand-picked candidate."
Democrats also alleged that Pilip wants to "ban abortion even in New York" and that she'll make "massive cuts to Social Security."
Meanwhile, Republicans accused Suozzi of perpetuating "a crisis on our border," and "murder in our streets" with the votes he took in Congress.
According to AdImpact, the DCCC has already spent over $2.5 million on ads in the race, while the NRCC has spent $55,000, plus $100,000 on a joint ad with Pilip's campaign.
DeSantis' super PAC lays off staffers
Never Back Down, the super PAC supporting DeSantis’ presidential campaign, carried out layoffs today, according to an official familiar with the moves.
The layoffs affected staff in Iowa and Nevada, as well as some working on data operations. Those who were laid off had their emails immediately shut down. It’s unclear how many staffers were let go.
The New York Times first reported the details of the layoffs.
DeSantis to move the majority of his campaign staff to South Carolina
DeSantis will continue to prioritize South Carolina over New Hampshire, moving the majority of his campaign staff to the Palmetto State, a senior campaign official told NBC News.
DeSantis will travel home to Florida after taking part in two events in New Hampshire today and will re-emerge on the trail in South Carolina on Saturday and Sunday.
The decision comes after the governor flew straight to South Carolina after Monday's Iowa caucuses. He held two events in South Carolina yesterday before traveling to New Hampshire later in the day. After he campaigns in the Granite State today, it's unclear when DeSantis will return to the state before next Tuesday's primary. South Carolina's GOP primary takes place Feb. 24.
CBS News first reported the details of DeSantis' campaign moves.
Biden campaign buys TV ad time ahead of South Carolina primary
President Joe Biden's campaign is buying TV ad time ahead of the Democrats' sanctioned lead-off primary in South Carolina.
According to AdImpact, an ad-tracking firm, the Biden campaign is placing new broadcast ad reservations in the Greenville and Charleston markets starting Jan. 22 and ending Feb. 3, the day of the South Carolina primary. The campaign has previously run radio ads in the state, per AdImpact.
Biden, who is facing long-shot primary challenges from Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., and author Marianne Williamson, is looking for a show of force in South Carolina as he continues to battle low approval ratings. The president announced his campaign staff in the state last month and spoke at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston last week. And he will travel to Columbia for a state party dinner Jan. 27.
The State newspaper in Columbia reported last week that the Biden campaign planned to run ads on TV, African American radio, streaming audio and print outlets in South Carolina ahead of the primary.
Trump lawyers preview arguments of ‘political bias’ in classified documents case
Trump’s lawyers last night previewed their arguments for the former president’s defense in the case alleging he mishandled more than a hundred classified documents, saying they plan to refute prosecutors’ accusations that sensitive government documents were stored at insecure locations on his Mar-a-Lago estate.
In a motion filed yesterday, Trump lawyers signaled they will argue that prosecutors carried out a “politically motivated and biased” investigation into his handling of classified documents, with the intent to damage the former president’s 2024 campaign.
Trump’s lawyers said they are seeking communications between prosecutors at the Justice Department and associates of Biden, alleging without providing evidence that the Biden administration is orchestrating legal efforts to interfere with Trump’s campaign.
Rep. Jeff Duncan, elected in 2010 tea party wave, won't seek re-election
Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., who was swept into Congress in the 2010 tea party wave, said today he will not seek re-election this fall, joining a growing number of House members who are heading for the exits.
“At some point in a career, one needs to step aside and allow others to bring fresh ideas and abilities into the fight for Liberty, just as I have," he said in a statement. “Now, it is time for another man or woman to serve our District in the next Congress. I will not seek re-election to the US House of Representatives.”
Duncan is a backbencher in the House but serves on the influential Energy and Commerce Committee and has focused during his time in Washington on energy issues and cutting spending.
He is the 17th Republican to announce they are retiring from the House or running for another office. (An 18th, former Rep. George Santos of New York, was expelled from Congress.) Meanwhile, 22 Democrats have announced they are not running for re-election.
Duncan's announcement comes just months after his wife of more than three decades, in court divorce filings, accused him of having an affair with a Washington lobbyist. Duncan has declined to comment on the allegations, writing on X on Sept. 27: “My family is dealing with a difficult and private moment and I’m not going to comment on a deeply personal matter.”
Former GOP senator's daughter launches campaign for Senate in New Mexico
Nella Domenici is launching a campaign in New Mexico for the U.S. Senate seat once held by her father, Pete Domenici.
The elder Domenici served from 1973 to 2009, becoming New Mexico's longest-serving senator. He was also the last Republican to hold the position in the state. He died in 2017.
New Mexico has voted Democratic in the last four presidential elections, with Biden winning by more than 10 points over Trump in 2020. Domenici, a former chief financial officer at the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, is mounting a challenge against Sen. Martin Heinrich, a Democrat who has held the seat since 2013.
Wisconsin congressional map challenged by Democratic firm
A group of voters challenged Wisconsin’s congressional map this week, in a last-minute effort to get new political boundary lines drawn in the swing state before the 2024 election.
Elias Law Group, a firm that frequently work with Democrats, filed the motion with the Wisconsin Supreme Courtyesterday.
The state's Republican-controlled Legislature and the Democratic governor deadlocked on new maps in 2021, and the state Supreme Court ordered a "least change" map — a map drawn to reflect population changes while hewing closely to the existing political boundaries, which were drawn by Republicans in 2011. Republicans currently hold six of Wisconsin's eight seats in the U.S. House.
The state Supreme Court’s new liberal majority recently ruled that court-drawn maps are not bound to the "least change" principle in a separate case, creating an opening for Democrats hoping to overturn Wisconsin's congressional map.
“Absent a course correction, an avowedly lawless map will remain in effect until at least 2031 and will govern four rounds of congressional elections," the motion argues.
Trump hits 50% in New Hampshire primary poll
As many as 50% of likely New Hampshire Republican primary voters said they will cast their ballot for Trump, a new Suffolk University/Boston Globe/NBC10 poll found.
Haley comes in second behind Trump, with 34% of those surveyed saying they'll vote for her Jan. 23, while 5% said they'll vote for DeSantis.
Among undeclared voters, who are allowed to vote in the GOP primary in New Hampshire, Haley earned 44% support. As many as 38% of undeclared voters said they'll vote for Trump, compared to just 3% for DeSantis.
The poll of 500 likely New Hampshire Republican primary voters was conducted Jan. 15-6 with a margin of error of +/- 4.4 percentage points.
CNN cancels its New Hampshire debate
CNN announced it's canceling its debate scheduled for Sunday in New Hampshire, because only one Republican presidential candidate had agreed to participate.
"CNN is no longer moving forward with a New Hampshire Republican Presidential Primary Debate, as only one qualifying candidate accepted our invitation to take the stage. We will continue to pursue other opportunities as the campaign season progresses through 2024, including candidate Town Halls," a CNN spokesperson said.
The news comes a day after ABC said it would not be holding tomorrow's debate in New Hampshire after just DeSantis was left saying he would participate. Haley said she would do it only if Trump would. (Trump has not participated in any of the debates so far.)
Judge says No Labels can block candidates from running for offices other than president in Arizona
PHOENIX — No Labels, the group preparing for a possible third-party presidential campaign, can prohibit members from using its ballot line to run for office in Arizona, a federal judge ruled yesterday.
The decision protects the group’s efforts to maintain control and secrecy around its operations and finances as Trump critics warn that No Labels could help return Trump to the White House by siphoning voters who might otherwise vote for the former president.
A judge blocked Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes from recognizing candidates wanting to run for office under the No Labels banner aside from the party’s yet-to-be-chosen ticket for president and vice president.
Fontes, a Democrat, called the ruling “dead wrong” and vowed to appeal. He warned that the ruling could keep the nearly 19,000 No Labels party members from voting in a primary, and the precedent could allow party bosses to decide who can run for office from any party.
Shifting to New Hampshire
Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley are all campaigning in New Hampshire six days out from the GOP primary. DeSantis will hold two events this afternoon, while Trump and Haley are slated for rallies this evening.
Trump is also expected to be in attendance for testimony in E. Jean Carroll’s damages trial against him in New York.
On the Democratic side, Rep. Dean Phillips, of Minnesota, President Joe Biden's long-shot primary challenger, has two New Hampshire events on his schedule this afternoon.