Many supporters of Nikki Haley's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination see New Hampshire as perhaps her only chance to slow the momentum of former President Donald Trump, especially after his landslide victory in the Iowa caucuses on Monday.
They are courting independents to show up at Tuesday's first-in-the-nation presidential primary and vote for the former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador. There are more registered undeclared voters (343,192) than Republicans (267,905) and Democrats (262,262) in the Granite State, according to WMUR-TV.
Voters registered with a specific party can vote in state and federal primaries for only that party, but voters registered as "undeclared" can choose which primary to vote in. New Hampshire's Democrat primary also is Tuesday.
A TV advertisement sponsored by Defending Democracy Together, a nonprofit anti-Trump group led by former Republican William Kristol and author Mona Charen, being shown in Manchester, New Hampshire, urged undeclared voters to vote Tuesday for Haley because she is the only person who can defeat Trump.
"One state can prevent Trump from winning the nomination: New Hampshire," the narrator says in the 30-second ad. "One candidate can defeat him: Nikki Haley. Most Granite Staters want her to defeat Trump, but he'll win unless voters stand firm behind a single alternative.
"That's why undeclared voters must go to their polling place on Jan. 23 to support Haley. New Hampshire, we can't waste this opportunity to defeat Trump."
Haley's campaign, which is not affiliated with Defending Democracy Together, declined to comment on the ad when reached by Newsmax, which also reached out to Defending Democracy Together for comment.
Haley finished third in Iowa with 19.1% of the vote, far behind Trump, who was at 51%. New Hampshire is proving to be a tighter race, with the FiveThirtyEight polling average showing Trump at 44.4% and Haley at 31.4%.
No nonincumbent Republican has won the New Hampshire primary after winning the Iowa caucuses since the two were put back-to-back on the presidential primary schedule in 1976. In 2016, Trump finished second in Iowa and won New Hampshire.
"I do think it's going to be a two-person race," Juliana Bergeron, a national committeewoman for the Republican Party of New Hampshire, told The New York Times on Friday. "We'll see a lot more independents taking Republican ballots. So I think that will make a change, too, because neither party can live by themselves here in New Hampshire. We always need the independents to come with one of us."
Voters in New Hampshire could switch parties between Sept. 14 and Oct. 7 for the presidential primary. The New Hampshire Bulletin reported in October, citing the secretary of state's office, that 3,542 people who were registered as Democrats switched their registration to "undeclared." An additional 408 Democrats switched to be registered as Republicans.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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