Jan. 19 (UPI) — This year’s New Hampshire primary is shaping up to be unlike any other.
While Republican presidential candidate frontrunner Donald Trump splits time between the campaign trail and court, his main challengers Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis aren’t found barnstorming the state to make personal appearances as expected. Meanwhile, the Republican primary debate has been canceled for lack of participants.
New Hampshire’s semi-closed primaries take place on Tuesday. Voters can participate in either party’s primary if they are an undeclared voter. If they have declared affiliation to a party, they may only participate in that party’s primary.
Twenty-two delegates are at stake in the Republican primary. They will be awarded to candidates based on the share of votes they receive. A candidate must earn at least 10% of the vote to be eligible to receive delegates.
Unlike the Iowa caucus the week before, voters may cast absentee ballots. They also have at least eight hours on Tuesday to cast their votes in person.
Campaigning by Republicans also has been starkly different compared to the days leading up to the Iowa caucus. Former President Trump is holding rallies through the weekend, but he spent the early part of the week in a New York courtroom.
Haley also has a spattering of events across the Granite State through Monday. It is not the same volume as she had a week ago amid a winter storm that battered Iowa with dangerous sub-freezing temperatures and snow.
Florida Gov. DeSantis was slated to arrive in New Hampshire on Friday. He already had shifted resources to South Carolina more than a month before its primary.
The Republican primary debate was scheduled for Thursday but was canceled a few days before. DeSantis was the only candidate who agreed to participate after Haley demanded Trump finally take the debate stage.
“We’ve had five great debates in this campaign,” Haley wrote Tuesday in a post on X. “Unfortunately, Donald Trump has ducked all of them. He has nowhere left to hide. The next debate I do will either be with Donald Trump or with Joe Biden. I look forward to it.”
Meanwhile President Joe Biden is not participating in the Democratic primary in New Hampshire. Instead a write-in campaign by New Hampshire Democrats seeks to deliver a win for the president. The winner of the primary will not earn any delegates for the Democratic National Convention.
In 2022, the Democratic National Committee voted to make South Carolina the first primary state. The party’s South Carolina primary will be held on Feb. 3.
Author Marianne Williamson and Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., debated in New Hampshire earlier this month and will be on the Democratic primary ballot on Tuesday.
