Atkinson, N.H. – New Hampshire is drawing loads of attention in the wake of polls showing Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton tied in the smallest battleground state, and both campaigns have rushed to deploy their most high-profile surrogates to greet voters here over the weekend.
Trump spent Friday afternoon rallying supporters at a ritzy country club in Atkinson, just miles away from downtown Manchester, where the Republican nominee will make his final campaign stop on Monday before the fate of his presidential bid is determined the following day. In between his two New Hampshire rallies, Trump will appear in seven other swing states, many of which have shown him polling competitively in the election’s waning days.
“This is where it all began,” Trump said to applause as he took the stage on Friday. “Right here is where I learned more about it than anything else.”
New Hampshire Republicans are hoping Trump’s visit to their state on the eve of the election will put GOP and right-leaning voters in a coalescing mood, convincing them to “come home” in the eleventh hour.
“There are some folks who have been holding out on Trump among us Republicans,” said New Hampshire GOP vice chairman Matt Mayberry. “I have a simple message for them: get over it. The Supreme Court is too important for your fragile ego to not vote.”
Former Republican Gov. John Sununu echoed Mayberry and warned attendees not to expect a second bombshell related to Clinton’s private email scandal before the Nov. 8 election. “There’s not going to be a smoking gun,” he declared. “This is going to be, in New Hampshire, a plus or minus 5,000-vote election. You know what a 5,000-vote election means? It’s each one of you here going out and getting two more votes.”
A UMass Lowell/7News poll released hours before Trump touched down in Atkinson showed him and Clinton tied at 44 percent each among likely voters. Twenty-four hours prior, a WBUR survey found Trump narrowly ahead of Clinton, 40-39. Barring any last-minute scandals, Mayberry, Sununu and Trump’s supporters believe the candidate can cling to his barely-there lead long enough to eke out a victory and sweep up New Hampshire’s four electoral votes.
“He’s finally found his message and if he sticks to that, he’ll pull it off,” Nick Bovio, a Trump supporter from Conway, told the Washington Examiner. “We tend to be more of an independent state and so it helps that he’s not tied to the special interests and says whatever he wants.”
To both his surprise and approval, Bovio said Trump has appeared more concentrated and disciplined in his public appearances since the FBI’s “October Surprise” last Friday. Trump spent a good portion of his stump speech on Wednesday reminding himself to “stay on point” as the crowd laughed.
“No sidetracks, Donald,” he said to himself mid-speech.
But Trump has to do more than stick to his script if he intends to win New Hampshire, where he has cultivated a unique relationship with voters who gave him his first primary victory in February.
While the Clinton machine plans to deploy President Obama, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to greet Granite Staters between now and Monday, Trump’s campaign will send his eldest daughter Ivanka and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie out on the trail here.
Both surrogates serve specific purposes, one New Hampshire-based Trump adviser told the Examiner.
“We hope Ivanka will reach young women and mothers who are still on the fence about Trump but have ruled out voting for Hillary. Christie still has a following here from the primary and we think he can get some undeclared voters (the equivalent of independents) on our side,” the adviser said.
Following his remarks in Atkinson, Trump jetted off to Ohio, where he will kick off a 9-stop tour before returning here on Monday. In the meantime, he encouraged New Hampshire voters to stay positive and spend the closing days of the election convincing their family and friends to vote.
“I think we’re going to have a great, great day on Tuesday in New Hampshire,” Trump said, adding with a smirk, “One of the great political commentators said whoever wins New Hampshire is going to win.”
