January 22 - 2024 campaign updates

A board to tally votes inside of the Tillotson House in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire on January 23.

The first votes of the New Hampshire GOP primary have been cast, with all six voters in the tiny town of Dixville Notch backing former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

“A great start to a great day in New Hampshire,” Haley said in a statement reacting to the vote. “Thank you Dixville Notch!”

Four registered Republican voters and two independents participated in the vote, in which former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, failed to earn support.

In New Hampshire’s northern tip, Dixville Notch is the first place to declare primary results because voters there cast ballots so early. Its midnight voting tradition dates back to 1960.

As its population has dwindled over the years, Dixville Notch’s hold on the mini-contest has been a success story for local leaders – and a reason to smile for political junkies eager for an early taste of the voting to come.

According to Town Moderator Tom Tillotson, his father worked to get Dixville Notch incorporated specifically so the community could vote and residents would not be forced to travel close to an hour away in the snow to participate in elections.

But he cautioned against thinking the midnight results would be too instructive.

“There’s no magic bullet that comes out of here that tells people what to do or what’s going to happen. Sometimes we are right. Sometimes we are wrong,” Tillotson said ahead of the vote.

The core takeaway, he said, is that people should not shy away from participating in the democratic process.

“If all these people in the wilderness can get up at midnight and go vote, 100% of the town, maybe we should take voting a little more seriously. If we do anything positive, it’s maybe encourage a few extra people to vote,” Tillotson said.

The Republican presidential contest is down to two candidates on the eve of the New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary, and Nikki Haley is looking to show she is a worthy alternative to front-runner Donald Trump — who is stacking up endorsements from inside the GOP.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden’s campaign is also hitting the trail, doubling down on its message about reproductive rights as it looks to pull off a successful write-in campaign in New Hampshire.

Here’s what’s happened today on the campaign trail:

Trump shows off GOP support: Trump flexed his support from within the Republican Party at his rally in Laconia, New Hampshire, tonight, with Sen. Tim Scott, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy all joining the former president, a source familiar with the plans told CNN. The three men endorsed Trump after dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.

Robocall scam underscores awkward Democratic primary: A robocall that appears to be an AI voice resembling Biden is reaching out to New Hampshire residents, advising them against voting in Tuesday’s presidential primary and saving their vote for the November general election. Democratic lawmakers from New Hampshire have criticized the change in the party’s calendar keeping the president’s name off the ballot, pointing out it has forced a more complicated write-in campaign.

Tiny township to vote at midnight: One tiny town in northern New Hampshire will open and close its poll just after midnight ET on the morning of the state’s primary. The town, Dixville Notch, has taken part in the practice since 1960.

Haley gives final pitch to New Hampshire voters: The former South Carolina again gave her argument to voters in the Granite State that she is the best alternative to the former president as she looks to make a statement tomorrow, yet her message lacked any new urgent tone. In her final speech to hundreds of supporters in Salem, she said, “Don’t complain about what happens in a general election if you don’t go vote tomorrow.”

Biden campaign focuses on reproductive freedoms, youth vote: Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Wisconsin on Monday to deliver impassioned remarks on reproductive freedoms, kicking off a campaign season that the Biden campaign hopes will focus on reproductive rights, with Harris playing a crucial role. Harris also posted a video with Gen Z actress Madelyn Cline taped during her trip to South Carolina last week to highlight the importance of the youth vote. 

The chairman of the hardline House Freedom Caucus is backing Donald Trump for president after his previously endorsed candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, dropped out of the race on Sunday.

“I spent seven or eight months in support of governor DeSantis. Now is the time to turn the page and support President Trump. … He’s the best hope for America today. He’s going to be the nominee. He did a great job his first term. I think he’ll do an even better job in his second term,” Virginia Rep. Bob Good told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “The Source.”

Some context: CNN previously reported that Trump and his close aides were annoyed with Good when he announced in May that he was endorsing DeSantis, Trump’s leading rival at the time. They viewed his backing of the Florida governor as “disloyal,” one of Trump’s advisers told CNN shortly after Good’s endorsement, arguing that the former president “helped get him elected” by endorsing Good’s congressional bid in 2020.

Asked about criticism he’s drawn from within his own party, including from GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was kicked out of the Freedom Caucus last year and is officially backing his primary opponent, Good said the Georgia congresswoman has an “axe to grind.”

“She’s upset because Kevin McCarthy was removed as speaker,” Good said. “And she has a personal vendetta against people like me who didn’t support Kevin McCarthy for speaker.”

Good told Collins he’s all-in for Trump. “I look forward to having a close working relationship with him and doing everything we can to reverse the harm that’s been done by this president. The time for comparing President Trump to other candidates is over. We’re united behind President Trump,” he said.

Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event in Laconia, New Hampshire, on January 22.

Former President Donald Trump reacted Monday to South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott’s engagement as he invited the senator on stage with him, saying: “We never thought this was going to happen.”

“He’s engaged to be married. We never thought this was going to happen. What’s going on?” Trump said at a campaign event in Laconia, New Hampshire, on the eve of the state’s GOP primary. 

Scott, who dropped out of the GOP presidential race and endorsed Trump, announced his engagement to his girlfriend Mindy Noce in an interview with The Washington Post on Sunday. He also posted about the engagement on X.

Scott said he proposed to Noce in South Carolina on Saturday evening, one day after he traveled to New Hampshire to officially endorse Trump for president. 

Trump was joined on stage Monday night by Scott, Vivek Ramaswamy and Doug Burgum, as he touted the endorsements from his former GOP presidential rivals.

“That’s a great group of people. You’ll be seeing a lot of them,” Trump told the crowd.

In this February 2020 photo, Selectman Les Otten, left, casts the first ballot of the New Hampshire presidential primary election during the midnight vote at The Balsams Resort in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire.

One tiny town in northern New Hampshire will open and close its polls just after midnight ET on the morning of the state’s primary.

The quaint community of Dixville Notch will kick off the Granite State’s primary with the results expected a few minutes after all six ballots are cast. There are four registered Republican voters and two independents slated to participate.

“It’s the true exercise of democracy. Democracy thrives on participation and lack thereof creates chaos,” said Leslie Otten, principal owner and developer of the Balsams Resort, where the voting is set to take place.

Since 1960, Dixville Notch has held presidential primary and general election voting at midnight. The original 64-year-old ballot box will be used to tally the votes. Photos and political memorabilia from previous election days adorn a onetime living room that has been converted into a polling location.

Otten declined to say who he was voting for but noted that residents of the town were invited to meet privately with Nikki Haley. Otten is a lifelong Republican but voted for President Joe Biden in 2020.

Two other towns, Hart’s Location and Millsfield, began midnight voting earlier than 1960 but haven’t participated continuously and aren’t conducting midnight voting this year.

Recently, with the hotel closed and awaiting redevelopment, there have been questions about whether Dixville Notch would have enough voters, but the tradition has continued. Journalists from all over the world will outnumber the residents in the tiny township.

According to Town Moderator Tom Tillotson, former Balsams resort owner Neil Tillotson (Tom’s father) worked to get Dixville Notch incorporated specifically so residents would not be forced to travel close to an hour away in the snow to participate in elections.

Former President Donald Trump on Monday attacked Nikki Haley for being “all talk and no action” while she was his ambassador to the United Nations during the negotiations to release American college student Otto Warmbier from North Korea.

“Otto would never have been seen alive again if not for the strength of the Trump Administration. … Nikki was all talk and no action. I got him out, but by the time I assumed office, he was very close to death. GOD BLESS OTTO!” Trump said in a series of posts on Truth Social.

The Trump administration secured Warmbier’s release from North Korea in June 2017 on humanitarian grounds after nearly 18 months of imprisonment. He died shortly after being brought back to the US.

The posts came hours after Nikki Haley’s campaign released an ad featuring Warmbier’s mother, Cindy, as part of a broader effort to highlight Haley’s foreign policy experience.

“My son, Otto, was invited to North Korea on an organized tour. He was taken hostage, tortured and murdered by the government of North Korea,” Cindy Warmbier says in the ad. “She told us to be loud and fight back. To fight for justice. To fight for ourselves. And to fight for Otto.”

Cindy Warmbier has not been a regular facet of Haley’s campaign, but she did introduce Haley in South Carolina when she launched her presidential campaign last year.

Former President Donald Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

The final polls of the New Hampshire Republican primary have shown Donald Trump with a double-digit advantage over Nikki Haley. Ron DeSantis was bringing up the rear (in single digits) before deciding to bow out of the race Sunday.

So who were those DeSantis backers likely to support?

Both CNN’s poll conducted by University of New Hampshire and the Monmouth University/Washington Post survey found that DeSantis’ supporters chose Trump over Haley as their second choice by about a 2-to-1 margin.

DeSantis leaving the race doesn’t dramatically alter the state of affairs, as the Florida governor had so few supporters in New Hampshire.

But it does show how difficult things are for Haley in the Granite State and beyond. The former South Carolina governor will need to pull a Houdini-like magic trick to win tomorrow, and the trick has only become harder.

If Haley somehow manages to win in New Hampshire, she still faces a national electorate that seems bound to renominate Trump. The latest CBS News/YouGov national poll put Trump at 69% to Haley’s 12%. (DeSantis was at 14% in the same poll.)

That is basically tied for the largest advantage any GOP front-runner has had at this point in the primary process during the modern era. (George W. Bush had a similar lead before winning the nomination in 2000.)

If Haley doesn’t win in New Hampshire, she faces an additional deficit: No Republican has ever won the party nomination without winning either Iowa or New Hampshire.

Bottom line: It’s a very tall hill to climb for Haley on the eve of the first-in-the-nation primary.

Republican candidate Nikki Haley continued to question Donald Trump’s mental fitness Monday, saying the former president is “declining.”

She told CBS’ Norah O’Donnell that “I think he’s mentally fit, but I think he’s declining.”

Over the weekend, Haley questioned Trump’s mental fitness after he appeared to confuse her with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when talking about the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

“Do we really want two 80-year-old candidates running for president? Because the concern I have is look at Joe Biden two years ago. Look at how much he’s declined in these two years. What I’m saying is, why can’t we go and finally get all of these people out of DC and go with new generational people?” Haley said on CBS’ “Evening News.”

Republican presidential candidate, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks during a campaign event on Monday, January 22, in Salem, New Hampshire.

It’s a two-person race in New Hampshire. Tonight, the question is for how long.

On the eve of the New Hampshire primary, Nikki Haley stands as the last remaining challenger to Donald Trump in a one-on-one contest that could show whether he’s unstoppable on a march to the Republican nomination.

It is a moment of high urgency for Haley in a Republican race that has changed significantly since the Iowa caucuses one week ago tonight — yet her message lacked any new urgent tones.

Her points on electability and restoring conservative ideals to the White House drew cheers, but voters could be forgiven for walking away without a sense of the stakes.

A man approached Haley at a brewery Monday afternoon, imploring her to “Stay in the race! Stay in the race!” She replied not to worry, saying: “We’re going to South Carolina.”

Indeed, Haley has scheduled a rally for Wednesday night in North Charleston. Will she arrive as a winner or as a candidate reassessing the way forward? 

Those are urgent questions, whether Haley expresses them with urgency — or not.

Sen. Mitt Romney acknowledged that any campaign to unseat Donald Trump as leader of the GOP is a “long shot” and criticized Ron DeSantis’ campaign for drawing support away from an alternative to the former president.

“I think it’s a very long shot. It’s always been a long shot,” the Utah senator told CNN. “I think it’s probably [Trump’s] to lose, but you know, it’s not impossible, but it’s very unlikely that he doesn’t become the nominee.” 

Romney, who is leaving the Senate when he finishes his term and has been a vocal critic of Trump, has previously called on Republicans to consolidate behind one alternative to the former president.

“I think DeSantis took a lot of oxygen away from the people who wanted an alternative to Donald Trump. … And that made it harder for Nikki Haley to get the steam she wanted,” Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, told CNN.