The Race For 2nd Place In New Hampshire

[WestVirginiaRebel]

US News:

The results of the Iowa caucuses finished the presidential campaigns of three Republicans.

 

Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary is almost guaranteed to claim the scalps of even more.

 

With Donald Trump sitting atop a 20-point lead in the Granite State, the race for second place has become the prized possession and a ticket to fight on in the narrowing GOP race. Five candidates are in varying ranges of contention for the slot, but some have more riding on it than others.

 

Having clinched a victory in the kick-off caucuses, a second place finish in New Hampshire would be icing on the cake for Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. But running as the most ideologically pure conservative candidate with a heavy appeal among Christian evangelicals, Cruz will march on to the next round of southern primaries regardless of his performance in New Hampshire.

 

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who overperformed public polling to take a strong third place in Iowa just behind Trump, would also like that runner-up slot, but hasn’t placed the overwhelming emphasis on the state that his competing class of governors has.

 

“I just want to do as well as we possibly can,” Rubio told reporters Wednesday in Laconia, New Hampshire, batting away expectations about his performance there.

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The runners-ups.