Nikki Haley tries to draw New Hampshire’s independents without alienating voters who backed Trump

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Richard Anderson drove through a snowstorm last week to see his preferred candidate in New Hampshire’s Republican primary. But he’s not sure how far he’ll go to support her if she wins the nomination.

Anderson, a 73-year-old independent voter from Jackson, liked what he heard from Nikki Haley at the Mount Washington Hotel. But he disagrees with the former U.N. ambassador’s plan to pardon former President Donald Trump if he is convicted of any of the crimes he’s been charged with.

“That bothers me,” he said. “I’ll still vote for her in the primary, but I’ll wait to see if she’s still saying that in the general election.”

Haley’s best shot at shaking Trump’s grip on the Republican nomination rests with her ability to attract New Hampshire’s independent voters — including some who might not stick with her in November — without alienating too many conservatives. Other Republicans have hit the right balance here, notably John McCain in two GOP primary victories. But those wins came long before Trump’s rise in politics and the Republicans’ rightward shifts both in the state and nationally.

“It’s a very difficult needle to thread,” said Nathan Shrader, an associate professor of politics at New England College, “because if she makes too much of an overt play for the independent voters, that could be a turnoff for some of the Republicans who we know in the Trump era are more conservative than they might have been a generation ago.”

Why this year’s New Hampshire primary is a bit different

• The DNC says New Hampshire officials violated national party rules when they decided to schedule the primary earlier than allowed.
• As a result, the primary, where voters normally choose delegates, won’t have anydelegates up for