That Iowa couple Christie talks about? They voted for Rubio

Tuesday night, fresh from his third-place finish in Iowa, Rubio packed the town hall in Exeter, N.H. The room was filled with 700 people – and some genuine electricity.

Audio for this piece will be available by approximately 11 a.m. Friday, Feb. 5.

For now, get a flavor for Kasich’s town hall meetings with this Spotify playlist. (Maybe they’re trading “You’re fired!” with “I like you, Solly, I’ll kill you last.”) The contestant list has a high reality-TV celebrity quotient, with luminaries such as Snooki Polizzi, Porsha Williams, and Carson Kressley. The former businesswoman did not satisfy polling criteria set by ABC News and says the game was rigged against her because she beat Christie and Kasich in Iowa, and they will be on the stage and she won’t. John Kasich already has said he’ll go home right away if he gets “smoked”. “We don’t get as much attention, we don’t make as much noise as other parts of the Republican coalition, but we do still exist”. “I will call your son and I will talk to him if you think it will help”, Kasich told Lynn blank as tears streamed down her face.

It’s not definite that a poor showing in New Hampshire would choke off candidates’ finances immediately.

And from VFW halls to college campuses to diners across the Granite State, GOP hopefuls are rallying the faithful and trying to convince the undecided. The poll includes interviews with a random sample of 556 adult residents of New Hampshire, including 209 who say they plan to vote in the Republican presidential primary.

“He’s the candidate for those looking for a less-extreme conservative, a cool-headed candidate”, said Frank Talty, co-director of UMass Lowell’s Center for Public Opinion. “I want somebody who’s talking straight, and I want somebody who’s electable now that may not end up the same person”.

Come next week, Cullen says, the pressure will be on to consolidate establishment support behind one candidate to stop Trump.

But if not, it’s unclear which candidate Trump thinks is his biggest obstacle in New Hampshire and beyond.

But there’s another measure of primary success, something less tangible than vote totals: How long, and intensely, does a candidate woo New Hampshire voters?

With his wife and four children in tow, Rubio maintained a dizzying schedule in New Hampshire this week, squeezing every drop of energy out of his better-than-expected finish in Iowa.

With such a crowded field there are still a limited number of voters to convince.

At a campaign rally in Bedford Saturday, Christie jokingly thanked the crowd and said that he was thrilled that “none of you people made enough fun of Donald Trump to make him not come tonight”.

Devine says the details were not yet finalized but “it looks like it’s going to happen”. “New Hampshire is certainly a good place to identify losers, and to narrow the field”.

If anyone doubted the benefits of an early win in a presidential contest, Ted Cruz has made them clear.

The conservative-leaning paper endorsed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in the GOP primary race.

And when Christie spoke to the New Hampshire Legislature last month, he offered a warm thank you to the state as a whole for welcoming him over the course of the campaign. On MSNBC’s Morning Joe he called out Rubio for having “drive by” town halls and questioned whether he had any real accomplishments in the Senate.

“This weekend will be very important”, Stevens said.

A Fox News poll of people entering the GOP caucuses Monday night suggested half of those who waited until the final days to settle on a candidate favored Rubio or Cruz.

Christie says, “if you reward those folks who don’t show up here there is no reason for New Hampshire to be first”. “And so now, it’s time for choice”.

With Iowa out of the way, but not without controversy, the remaining candidates for the Republican nomination for president will come together in New Hampshire for their eighth debate Saturday night.