‘You don’t see the frenzy’: The New Hampshire primary is a bust

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — The storied New Hampshire primary is a dud.

Debates are off. The frontrunner, Donald Trump, chose to spend a day in court. His main rival, Nikki Haley, is keeping a light (by New Hampshire standards) schedule. And Ron DeSantis, already an afterthought here, is effectively ceding the state and moving on to other contests.

“It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before in my 32 years of New Hampshire presidential primary experience,” said New Hampshire GOP strategist Mike Dennehy, a veteran of John McCain’s presidential campaigns here.

The collapse of the GOP primary campaign in New Hampshire came on relatively suddenly this week, spurred by DeSantis’ decision to focus more on South Carolina — where the primary is a month away — and Haley’s refusal to debate unless Trump appeared alongside her. What remained was a string of nighttime rallies by the former president and a handful of retail events featuring Haley. No one is barnstorming.

And that’s just the Republican primary. On the Democratic side — where the incumbent president, Joe Biden, is not even competing and the main events are Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) discussing artificial intelligence — it’s even worse. The dramatic elements that have traditionally defined this week of politics — from John McCain catching fire to Hillary Clinton choking up with tears — are nowhere to be found.

“You don’t see the frenzy, the frenetic activity,” said Dave Carney, a New Hampshire-based Republican strategist. “You don’t see the movements that are usually going on where you have folks crisscrossing the state, trying to get every last vote.”

Instead, Carney said, it’s mostly “a lot of TV ads and a lot of mail.”

Getting up-close-and-personal with presidential