As New Hampshire’s primary draws near, the candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination are addressing voters in the state.
With New Hampshire's primary just days away, the candidates still running for the Republican nomination are in the state looking to drum up support.
Former President Donald Trump, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis all held events Wednesday. See our candidate tracker to learn when and where they are speaking.
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NBC10 Boston sat down for an interview with DeSantis Wednesday and spoke with supporters of all three Republican candidates.
Donald Trump
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Ellen Lynch of Ware, New Hampshire, said she is going to vote for Donald Trump if he doesn't pick Nikki Haley as his running mate while waiting in line for the former president's campaign rally in Portsmouth Wednesday night.
"I'm here. I'm at the rally. I'm going to support Trump as best I can," Ware said, noting she has a Trump sign in her front lawn. "Nikki Haley -- she's bought paid for. She's in bed with China. She's in bed with everything that's bad."
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Lynch wasn't the only one with a distaste for the candidate that's come closest to Trump in the polls.
"He funds 76% of his own campaign. He's not bought and paid for like Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis," Dan from Nashua said. "It's a no-brainer. If you want your country back, it's going to take Trump. Nobody else is going give it back to us."
Supporters say they're voting for Trump because they liked the way life was when he was president.
"I support him because I like his border policies and I like what he had in place before Biden took over," Geo Magamann said. "Like the economy, my utility bills, they all doubled, basically. And my food prices -- it's like I walk out of Walmart with a little bag and it's $100."
"I'm really concerned of national debt. I'm not hearing a lot of that from anybody," said Rich Kozikowski of Springfield, Massachusetts. "That's probably been my number one concern since 30 years ago."
"I think we really need to change these systems in our country," said Matthew Albion of Dover, New Hampshire. "His foreign policy -- making peace through strength. I love that. I'm Jewish, I love the work that he did in the Middle East. I hate the work that's going on now. I hate Nikki Haley's idea of 'Let's bomb everyone' instead of trying to be peaceful."
And they're not concerned about the 91 felony counts against Trump or his civil case in New York.
"They've been doing this forever -- since he came down the escalator," Albion said. "Who is still talking about those boxes of documents he had in his basement? No one. It's the next thing, after the next thing, after the next thing. I find it interesting that everyone forgets."
Trump has a busy week in New Hampshire with events every night. Click here for a full list of campaign events for all the candidates.
Nikki Haley
Nikki Haley has delivered her sharpest attacks yet against former President Donald Trump on the campaign trail in New Hampshire.
The former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina governor said the Republican primary has become a two-person race, and she is a lot more electable than Trump.
She took the stage Wednesday at a packed house in Rochester. Part of her speech focused on how she stacks up against Trump in head-to-head polls against President Joe Biden.
"I defeat Biden by up to 17 points," Haley said. "That's bigger than the presidency. That's governorship, that's House, that's Senate, all the way down to the school board."
A wide range of backgrounds could be found at Haley's events Wednesday.
"I came in as an independent, undecided voter, and I was really impressed with what Nikki had to say about domestic and foreign policy," said one voter.
"I am actually a Democrat -- I just can't switch my party, I have always been a Democrat -- but it doesn't mean I won't vote for a Republican," said another. "Nikki was good."
"I am not going to tell you who I am going to vote for, but I know who I am going to vote for," Sue Nelson said.
Ron DeSantis
We caught up with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as he campaigned in Derry, New Hampshire, after a second-place finish in Iowa.
The Granite State will be a heavy lift for DeSantis, who is a distant third behind Trump and Haley in a Suffolk University/NBC10 Boston/Boston Globe tracking poll.
"We always overperform the polls, so we will do that for sure," he told NBC10 Boston. "Ultimately, what we're doing is accumulating delegates. We accumulated delegates in Iowa, we'll accumulate delegates in New Hampshire. I'm going to be in Nevada against Trump, Haley isn't even on the ballot in Nevada."
DeSantis added that Haley "has spent an ungodly amount of money" in New Hampshire.
"She kind of got pushed up, and the scrutiny is causing her a lot of turbulence," he argued.
He also pointed to her decision not to participate in two debates ahead of New Hampshire's primary unless Trump took part.
"I know Donald Trump has been dodging debates, but he was president before," DeSantis said. "He's a known commodity. She's trying to prove herself, and you can't get on a stage and debate?"
As voters look to make up their minds as the primary approaches, some are sticking by Florida's governor.
"We're proud of Gov. DeSantis, and we're going to stick with him all the way to the end," said New Hampshire voter Richard Paddock.
"Listening to him today has really made me give him a close look for the primary," added Brian Halloran of New Hampshire.
"For me, right now, it's really Haley or DeSantis," said Rick Harrington of Massachusetts.
