What to Know About the New Hampshire Primary

Today, Tuesday, January 23rd, the state of New Hampshire will visit the voting boxes for the first presidential primary of the country. 

New Hampshire has the honors of bearing the first primary in the United States for more than 100 years now. In fact, the state passed a bill in 1975, stating they must be the first to hold the presidential primary.  

Both the Democratic and Republican New Hampshire primary will be held on Tuesday, so let’s go into details on both parties:

Democrat 

President Joe Biden, who is running for reelection, is the main contender for the Democratic party currently, but he will not appear on the New Hampshire primary ballot.

The Democratic National Committee, or the DNC, decided to shuffle around the primary schedule and put South Carolina as the first stop for the Democrats, to which New Hampshire responded poorly to. Due to the press coverage and attention drawn to New Hampshire, they desperately want to keep their first-in-the-nation status. 

As stated previously, New Hampshire is required by law to hold the first primary for both parties. Therefore, the state decided to decline the DNC’s rule change and hold the primary. 

President Biden, reasonably declined to participate in the primary because of concerns that the national party will remove delegates from any candidate that participated in the unsanctioned election. 

This caused many Democrats in New Hampshire to enact a write-in campaign for President Biden, hoping to get him the win. 

As for the other 21 candidates, if the write-in is successful then they will not stand much of a chance. 

President Biden currently leads the party with an astounding 64% while the runners up are only in the single digits. 6% say they will support Dean Phillips, a representative from Minnesota, and 2% say they will support Marianne Williamson. 

Despite the outcomes of the New Hampshire primary, no Democrat will really win because it violates the Democratic Party’s scheduling rules. Therefore, no delegates will be awarded based on the results. 

Overall, the majority of the Democratic party strongly supports President Joe Biden with or without being on the ballot in New Hampshire. 

Republican 

Donald Trump currently holds the top spot against other Republicans with approximately 50% support.

Niki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, is Trump’s closest competitor with 39% of voters. In order to surpass Trump, Haley has been focusing on Independent or Undeclared voters that will be allowed to vote in the primary elections. And so far she has strong support from them.

The Iowa Republican Caucus was held last Monday, January 15th, in which Trump took a big leap in the Republican standings. He won by a 30-point margin although Haley has narrowed Trump’s lead significantly in recent weeks. Originally, he led by 25 points which has gone down to 13 points. 

But, that doesn’t guarantee her the win, and many Republicans worry that she will drop out if she fails to win today. 

As for Ron DeSantis, he officially dropped out of the race, but is currently in third place. In Iowa, he placed a distant second to Trump.

State voter’s show support for DeSantis at 6% or lower, versus 50% and higher for Trump in recent polls conducted in New Hampshire. 

The main reason for his low numbers and dropping out is because of his campaigning strategy. He conducted more than 170 events in Iowa, and only held 46 in New Hampshire, according to NBC News.

A widely asked question is ‘how many delegates are at stake?’ The Republican party is giving out 22 delegates to New Hampshire which is less than 1% of total delegates. Delegates will be awarded for how well a candidate performs in the primary election, but they need to win at least 10% of the Republican votes.

Overall, a large portion of the Republican votes will be cast for either Trump or Haley. As for the other Republicans, their disappointing performances in Iowa caused both entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie, and others to drop out.

In conclusion, make sure to turn on your TVs and watch the New Hampshire primaries to find out who will win delegates for both parties.