Why New Hampshire Thinks It’s Smarter Than Iowa

Now that the Republican presidential primary race has moved to New Hampshire from Iowa, a few things will change.

The evangelical Christian social conservatism that dominates Iowa’s Republican politics is out, replaced by fiscal hawkishness and a libertarian streak rooted in the Granite State’s “Live Free or Die” ethos.

With Iowa fully in the rearview mirror, expect to hear a variation on the phrase “Iowa picks corn, New Hampshire picks presidents,” a favorite local slogan that aggrandizes the state’s role in the nominating process. Still, ask Pat Buchanan and John McCain about how winning New Hampshire in 1996 and 2000 catapulted them to the White House.

One thing is clear: New Hampshire Republicans think their attention to federal spending and the national debt makes them a lot smarter than their Iowa brethren, for whom abortion and transgender issues have been atop the agenda.

“You have a more sophisticated electorate in New Hampshire,” said Ryan Williams, a Republican operative who got his start in the state working for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns. “New Hampshire voters exude rugged individualism and flinty Yankee frugality. It’s a different situation.”

Exit polls from Iowa suggested that many of the state’s Republican caucusgoers decided to back former President Donald J. Trump long before the campaign’s final stretch there. New Hampshire voters have a well-earned reputation for making their decisions late. Mr. McCain’s 2008 victory — which did propel him to the nomination — followed a final surge over Mr. Romney and other rivals.

This year, former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina is betting that there’s enough elasticity among New Hampshire voters that momentum can carry her past Mr. Trump and Gov. Ron