Evening Report — Battle of the underdogs in New Hampshire

by Amee LaTour - 01/23/24 5:02 PM ET

Evening Report

Haley, Phillips vow to keep campaigning after NH

IT’S A BATTLE OF THE UNDERDOGS in Tuesday’s first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire, with Republican Nikki Haley hoping for a boost in her bid against former President Trump for the GOP mantle.

On the Democratic side, while President Biden is far and away the party’s presumptive leader, the incumbent won’t be on the ballot Tuesday — opening a door for Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) and others to gain support.

Haley and Phillips, who are both long-shots for their party nods, have said they’ll continue their bids after New Hampshire, where polls suggest Trump and Biden have comfortable leads heading into Tuesday’s contests.

THE GOP SIDE… A memo from Haley’s campaign manager, Betsy Ankney, said “while members of Congress, the press, and many of the weak-kneed fellas who ran for president are giving up and giving in — we aren’t going anywhere.”

The memo projected optimism about Haley’s performance in states to come, including South Carolina, where Haley previously served as governor. It holds its GOP primary Feb. 24. Haley is entering New Hampshire’s primary around 14 points behind Trump in Decision Desk HQ/The Hill’s polling index.

THE DEM SIDE… Biden’s not on the ballot Tuesday due to a conflict between the Democratic National Committee and the state over the primary date. But a group of New Hampshire Democrats launched a write-in campaign for the president.

Phillips said Monday it’d be “literally unexpected and quite extraordinary” if he got 20 percent in the primary. And on CNN’s “This Morning” Tuesday, Phillips said he’ll stay in “as long as it takes” to get a match-up with Trump.

Biden is hardly an underdog in the 2024 Democratic primary overall. But The New York Times’ Reid J. Epstein noted within the New Hampshire write-in campaign “the sort of joy found in spirited underdogs.” There’s some uncertainty around how many Granite Staters will turn out to write Biden in.

CANDIDATE SPOTTING… The Hill’s Cate Martel and Julia Manchester ran into one of the 21 candidates on Tuesday’s Democratic presidential ballot at a diner in Manchester — more on that here.

Follow The Hill’s New Hampshire live blog throughout the day and night.

Related NH headlines:

Welcome to Evening Report! I’m Amee LaTour, catching you up from the afternoon and what’s coming tomorrow. Not on the list? Subscribe here.

CATCH UP QUICK

A federal appeals court declined former President Trump‘s push for his challenge to a gag order in the election interference case to be heard by the full court.
Rep. Garrett Graves (R-La.), whose district is being redrawn, isn’t pleased with Louisiana’s newly approved congressional district map, saying it could cost the GOP the House majority.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin hosted a virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on Tuesday morning, his first appearance since being hospitalized earlier this month with a urinary tract infection. Austin had an elective procedure after getting a prostate cancer diagnosis in December that went undisclosed for weeks.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau‘s Cabinet gathered to prepare a strategy for the potential return of former President Trump to office.

NEW THIS AFTERNOON

Schumer: GOP ‘taking cues’ from Trump in border dispute

Senate negotiators are “close to reaching a bipartisan agreement” on border policy but are “not there yet,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday.

Negotiators have been at it since before the holiday break. The talks are critical to drawing up legislative text for the supplemental package President Biden requested last year, which includes aid to Ukraine, Israel, the Indo-Pacific and more along with border security.

Schumer criticized some “on the hard right” whom he said are trying to quash border negotiations, saying, “Many of them are motivated by naked partisanship, others are taking cues from Donald Trump.”

labor

Union membership rate plateaued in 2023

Ten percent of wage and salary workers in 2023 were union members, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, similar to the year before.

While the rate dropped slightly, the nation saw 139,000 union members added in 2023. Labor Secretary Julie Su noted there are now 400,000 more union workers than in 2021.

Last year saw several high-profile strikes involving unions from different industries. Read more here.

Media

LA Times lays off dozens of journalists

Management at the Los Angeles Times plans to lay off around 100 employees — about one-fourth of the newspaper union’s members — as part of cost-cutting. Employees were notified of the layoffs Tuesday.

IN OTHER NEWS

GOP in standoff over McConnell-backed nominees

The Hill’s Alexander Bolton breaks down the ongoing standoff between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) over two McConnell-backed nominees to the Federal Trade Commission and National Transportation Safety Board.

Student debt forgiveness under Biden

Over the past three years, 3.7 million student loan borrowers have seen their debt forgiven, The Hill’s Lexi Lonas reports. Find out who’s benefitted, along with how this stacks up with the administration’s original goals, in the full report.