Candidates made a final push around New Hampshire on Saturday as the Tuesday Granite State primary approaches. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP frontrunner, is battling former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, Rep. Dean Phillips, of Minnesota, is competing with author and motivational speaker Marianne Williamson. President Joe Biden will not officially appear on the ballot, but a write-in campaign is being waged for him.

Follow along with USA TODAY and our team of reporters in New Hampshire throughout the weekend for updates.

Trump and Haley trade barbs as New Hampshire rivalry heats up

Trump and Haley took aim at one another in competing rallies Saturday as their battle for New Hampshire intensified.

Haley’s message was simple: Trump is a liar. Meanwhile, Trump hit Haley by inviting special guests to the stage in Manchester: South Carolina lawmakers who criticized their former governor, Haley.

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“Almost every politician in South Carolina is endorsing me,” Trump said.

Haley said Trump and his allies were lying about everything from her foreign policy positions to her proposals for Social Security. “If you got to lie to win, you don’t deserve to win,” said Haley at an event in Nashua. “Let me explain it to you. Because he’s going to lie about me. I’m going to tell you the truth about him.”

Haley hits Trump for confusing her with Pelosi

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley criticized former President Donald Trump after he confused her with Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., when discussing the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack at his rally Friday night in Concord, New Hampshire.

Trump had repeatedly claimed − falsely − that then-House Speaker Pelosi rejected his request of having 10,000 National Guard troops be deployed before Jan. 6, 2021. The name mix up occurred as Trump was criticizing Haley.

“Nikki Haley, you know they, do you know they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, deleted and destroyed all of it. All of it because of lots of things like Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guard, whatever they want. They turned it down. They don’t want to talk about that. These are very dishonest people,” Trump said.

Haley hit back at Trump’s remarks during a campaign stop in New Hampshire Saturday. 

“He was on a temper tantrum about me, which is fine he does that often, but he went on and talked about how I kept the police from going into the Capitol on Jan. 6, went on and repeated that I didn’t do anything to secure the Capitol,” Haley said. “Let’s be clear. I wasn’t in the Capitol on Jan. 6. I wasn’t in office on January 6th. He mentioned it three times. He got confused.”

− Sudiksha Kochi

Trump seeks a big win in NH in hopes of pressuring rivals to drop out

Former President Donald Trump used a Saturday rally in Manchester to against deliver a warning to Republicans: If he wins big in New Hampshire, he will put pressure on GOP rivals to drop out.

“We have to come together,” Trump told supporters at a chilly hockey arena. Left unsaid: A victory or a close second by Haley will create a tougher race. “We have to win by a lot,” Trump said at one point, a statement he would later repeat. “We need to come together.”

− David Jackson

Ron DeSantis’ schedule continues to raise eyebrows

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is campaigning in South Carolina just days before the New Hampshire primary, has now canceled a Sunday interview on CNN’s State of the Union. Announcing the cancellation on the social media site X (formerly Twitter), State of the Union said that “we look forward to having the Governor join us on the show in the near future.”

DeSantis spokesman Bryan Griffin said on X that “the media hits were canceled due to a scheduling issue and will be rescheduled. The governor will be traveling Sunday morning with the campaign and has public events scheduled Sunday evening through Tuesday in NH.”

− David Jackson

Haley gets support from Judge Judy

Judge Judy is coming to New Hampshire to stump for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

Judith Sheindlin, 81, whose courthouse-based reality show made her a staple of daytime television for 25 years, is scheduled to appear with Haley in Exeter on Sunday, two days before the New Hampshire primary.

— David Jackson

Will the results of the New Hampshire primary be delayed?

Eager election night viewers may need to wait longer than usual Tuesday for the outcome of the New Hampshire presidential primaries.  

This year, the results of the Democratic race could be delayed, as local election officials will be tasked with hand counting thousands of write-in votes for President Joe Biden, who won’t officially appear on the state’s ballot. 

New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan has advised election officials to release the results of the GOP primary ahead of the Democratic race if manual vote counting is slowing the process.

− Karissa Waddick

Rudy Giuliani shows up at Trump rally

A special guest has arrived at the Manchester hockey arena where Trump is speaking tonight: His former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

The former New York mayor, whose work for Trump on the 2020 election led to indictment, bankruptcy, and a $148 million defamation judgement against him, avoided the press pen as he made his way to his seat.

Some member of the crowd who spotted him began serenading him with cries of “Ruuuuuddddyyyy! Ruuuuuddyyyy!” No word on whether Giuliani will speak at the rally.

− David Jackson

Stefanik stumps for Trump

CONCORD, N.H. – Rep. Elise Stefanik, R- N.Y., told reporters Friday she’d be honored to serve in a future Trump administration.

Stefanik, a staunch Trump supporter, has been floated as a possible running mate for the former president. She’s criticized indictments filed against him and filed ethics complaints with judges who have overseen cases related to the former president.

–Sudiksha Kochi

Asa Hutchinson sees NH as two-person race between Trump and Haley, backs Haley 

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is supporting former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley in the New Hampshire primary, just days after dropping his own 2024 presidential bid.  

“Anyone who believes Donald Trump will unite this country has been asleep over the last 8 years. Trump intentionally tries to divide America and will continue to do so. Go @NikkiHaley in New Hampshire,” Hutchinson wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday.  

His backing, however, does not necessarily extend beyond the first-in-the-nation primary.  

“With DeSantis pulling out, basically, it’s a one-on-one contest between Nikki and Trump, and so yeah, I’m pulling for Nikki in New Hampshire,” he said in an interview.  

Hutchinson, who was among Trump’s strongest critics in the race, decided to end his 2024 campaign Tuesday after he earned less than 1% of the vote in the Iowa Caucuses.  

Several other former 2024 contenders, including biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, endorsed former President Trump earlier this week.