New Hampshire to host nation’s first primary vote

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and former President Donald Trump will face off in the first primary vote on Tuesday. The vote comes two days after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump. Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s campaign press secretary, said her team is “very confident” supporters of DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy will vote for Trump. A Boston Globe/NBC-10/Suffolk University poll released Monday morning shows Haley polling about 19 points behind Trump. Haley campaigned hard in New Hampshire and won Gov. Chris Sununu’s endorsement, which could prove to be an advantage in the open primary.

What’s the Democratic primary looking like? New Hampshire Democrats will also hold their primary vote on Tuesday, despite pushback from the Democratic National Committee. The DNC wanted to push the New Hampshire primary back and make South Carolina’s Feb. 3 primary the first in the nation for Democrats. New Hampshire rejected the DNC’s request, prompting President Joe Biden to withhold his name from Tuesday’s ballot in solidarity with the DNC. The controversy could be good news for rival Democratic candidate Rep. Dean Phillips or independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. However, U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., expects many citizens will still vote for Biden as a write-in candidate.

Dig deeper: Read Carolina Lumetta’s report in The Stew on results in the Iowa caucuses.