Mike Segar / Reuters
+2012 Election | 33 days ago

The Not-Romney Candidates Look Ahead to South Carolina

By Alex Altman and Katy Steinmetz

In the days before the Iowa caucus, Rick Santorum had a decision to make. Spiking in the polls and positioned for a top-three result, Santorum could try to ride the wave into New Hampshire, where legions of free media awaited, and hope a second consecutive strong finish would convince conservatives to unite around him as the consensus non-Romney candidate. Or he could decamp immediately for South Carolina, a state whose evangelical electorate was admittedly a better match for Santorum’s social conservatism.

Like Mike Huckabee, Santorum chose the former. Now he will enter South Carolina weakened, his momentum lessened by a lackluster fifth-place finish in the Granite State, where Santorum weathered a series of skirmishes with hostile protesters that muddled his message and exposed his ragged organization.

+2012 Election | 33 days ago

As Romney Claims New Hampshire, the GOP Comes to Grips with His Inevitability

By Adam Sorensen
Christopher Morris / VII for TIME

New Hampshire voters are famously fickle. They venture out on cold January mornings to shake a candidate’s hand, look him in the eye and judge the mettle of the man, polls and pundits be damned. This is where conventional wisdom comes to die at the hands of flinty Northeastern sensibility. Except when it doesn’t.

+2012 Election | 34 days ago

Scenes from New Hampshire on Primary Day

By Alex Altman and Katy Steinmetz
Emmanuel Dunand / AFP / Getty Images

Manchester, N.H. On the morning of the New Hampshire primary, Ronald Reagan walked into Newt Gingrich’s campaign headquarters on a leash. The 3-year-old West Highland terrier strolled in with his owner, Dan Ferrante, a Gingrich volunteer in a U.S. Marines beanie who had just voted for Newt and was eager for news. “How we doing?” [...]

+2012 Election | 34 days ago

New Hampshire Creates Big Expectations, if Little Drama, as GOP Race Wears On

By Alex Altman
Christopher Morris / VII for TIME

In a final, frantic day of campaigning before Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, the six Republican presidential hopefuls sought to calibrate expectations for a race from which Mitt Romney’s healthy lead has sapped much of the late drama.

+Photos Closeup | 34 days ago

Road to New Hampshire: The Primary Campaign’s Final Days in Photos

By Tara Godvin
T.J. Kirkpatrick / Getty Images

TIME captures Republicans, reporters and rabble-rousers on the campaign trail as the Granite State prepares to vote.

+2012 Election | 35 days ago

Why Ron Paul Is Gunning for Rick Santorum

By Katy Steinmetz

Meredith, N.H. Ron Paul set his sights on Rick Santorum the moment it became clear that the Texas Congressman would take bronze to Santorum’s silver in the Iowa caucuses. “We got one of the three tickets out of Iowa,” a campaign chair told a crowd waiting to hear Paul speak on Jan. 3. “And there [...]

+Rick Santorum | 35 days ago

Hecklers and Hostile Crowds Stymie Santorum in New Hampshire

By Alex Altman
sl_santprotest_0109_blog

It was a scene fit for a front-runner: an overflow crowd spilling out the doors of a Rockwellian barn on Saturday afternoon, kids perched in the rafters, an American flag tacked to one wall. The only thing missing from this perfect New Hampshire tableau was the candidate.

+Debates | 35 days ago

What You Missed While Not Watching the New Hampshire Republican Debates

By Michael Scherer
Alex Wong / Getty Images

At St. Anselm College, ABC News asks Jon Huntsman to come on stage first. Rick Perry peeks from behind the curtain instead, followed by the others. Huntsman is last out. Typical. This is not a good sign. Reality shows end with the big double-episode season finales, so the GOP has scheduled back-to-back debates the weekend before the New Hampshire primary, with a 10-hour delay in the middle. There is a long way to go.

+2012 Election | 37 days ago

How To Trip Mitt: Rhetorical Pitfalls for the GOP Front Runner

By Massimo Calabresi
David Goldman / AP

Friday night at a “spaghetti dinner” in Tilton, New Hampshire, a no-nonsense woman named Lisa Smith Brunelle, who is a single mother of four kids either in college or recently graduated, asked Mitt Romney whether he had any ideas for reducing the 8% interest rate they are paying on their college loans. Romney said one [...]

+Jon Huntsman | 38 days ago

In Final New Hampshire Push, Huntsman Embraces Underdog Role

By Alex Altman
Alex Wong / Getty Images

Concord, New Hampshire In the final days of his long New Hampshire barnstorm, Jon Huntsman has grown comfortable in a role he never expected to play. “I’m the underdog in this race,” Huntsman told a crowd of college kids and a few dozen reporters at a Concord hotel Friday morning. “New Hampshire loves an underdog.”