Tag: 2024 election live updates: The latest news ahead of the New Hampshire primary

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 to show off GOP support: Trump will flex 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 expected to join 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 polls 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 decision by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to end his presidential campaign came after days of conversations with donors and as his campaign and a trio of allied super PACs spent tens of millions of dollars organizing and advertising for his bid. 

DeSantis and his wife, Casey, made the decision Sunday afternoon, surprising many of his rank-and-file staffers and supporters. 

“The money wasn’t there to continue,” one top DeSantis donor told CNN. 

According to AdImpact data, through Sunday, the DeSantis campaign and three super PACs formed to support him – Never Back Down, Fight Right and Good Fight – had spent more than $60 million on pro-DeSantis advertising. 

Never Back Down, the first super PAC formed to support DeSantis’ White House bid, had faced criticism of its resource management, and went through significant staff turmoil. 

That’s despite the fact that the super PAC initially received more than $80 million that DeSantis had amassed during his time as governor of Florida, a massive stockpile of funds that allowed the group to hit the ground running with lavish TV ads, a large staff and even to provide some campaign infrastructure. 

Including that haul, Federal Election Commission records show that Never Back Down raised $130 million during the first half of 2023, and entered July of last year with nearly $100 million in cash on hand. 

Meanwhile, the DeSantis campaign itself had raised more than $31 million through midyear, per FEC records, but a portion of those funds were available for use only in the general election. And the campaign entered the fourth quarter of last year facing a real cash crunch, with only $5 million in cash on hand for use in the presidential primary as of September 30. The campaign had not yet announced how much it raised in the fourth quarter of last year. 

Nikki Haley’s campaign will begin airing a three-minute TV ad in New Hampshire on Monday featuring the mother of an American college student who died in 2017 after being detained by North Korea the previous year.

The ad is an effort to highlight Haley’s foreign policy experience and the personal relationship she built with Otto Warmbier’s mother, Cindy Warmbier, on the eve of the New Hampshire primary.

“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,” Warmbier’s mother says in the ad. 

Over the course of Haley’s time as ambassador to the United Nations, she built a strong relationship with the Warmbier family after their son’s death. 

“She told us to be loud and fight back. To fight for justice. To fight for ourselves. And to fight for Otto. We passed laws in Otto’s name, seized North Korean assets, and helped close down illegal businesses run by the North Koreans,” Warmbier will tell New Hampshire voters, adding that Haley demonstrated strength and compassion in supporting her traumatized family. 

“I will tell you how she promised me she would do everything she could to make sure the world never forgot Otto,” Warmbier says.

The new ad is just one piece of the massive investment Haley and her allies have made in the New Hampshire primary, spending roughly twice as much on advertising there as Donald Trump’s political network since the start of the 2024 White House race. But Trump and his allies have used recent weeks to ramp up spending in the state to counter signs of momentum for the former South Carolina governor. 

Warmbier has not been a regular facet of Haley’s campaign but she did introduce the former ambassador to the UN in South Carolina when she launched her campaign last year.