The Latest: The late deciders _ lots of NH Republican voters
By Associated Press
Feb 9, 2016 6:31 PM CST
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., center, has a selfie taken with an attendee during a campaign stop at the University of New Hampshire Whittemore Center Arena, Monday, Feb. 8, 2016, in Durham, N.H. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)   (Associated Press)

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — The Latest developments from the 2016 presidential campaign, with the focus Tuesday on the New Hampshire primary (all times local):

7:25 p.m.

Call them the late deciders.

Nearly half of the voters in Tuesday's Republican primary in New Hampshire are saying they made up their mind in the last week. On the Democratic side? More than half say they decided before that.

The findings are among some of the early results of the exit poll conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and the television networks.

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7:15 p.m.

What's at stake on the delegate front in the New Hampshire primary?

For Democrats, 24 delegates are up for grabs. On the GOP side, it's 23.

The GOP count after the Iowa caucuses: eight for Ted Cruz, and seven each for Donald Trump and Marco Rubio. It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination.

Hillary Clinton holds a big delegate lead, mainly due to on endorsements from superdelegates. Those are the party officials who can support the candidate of their choice.

Clinton has 385 delegates and Bernie Sanders has 29.

It takes 2,382 delegates to win the Democratic nomination.

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7:05 p.m.

Move it along, Mr. Trump. And the entourage with you, too.

That's the message from the moderator at a New Hampshire polling site — the Webster Elementary School in Manchester.

Jim Townsend's in a huff over the commotion caused by Trump's visit — and the reporters, Secret Service members and Trump supporters blocking voters trying to get in and out of the polling place.

Here's how Townsend puts it: "Please, no one can get through to vote thanks to Mr. Trump. Let's move it along."

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6:55 p.m.

It's not clear yet whether New Hampshire's Democratic presidential primary will break for Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton. But there's no doubt about where their next showdown will come — it's the Nevada caucuses on Feb. 20.

And now Nevada Democrats say the candidates will participate in a town-hall event on Las Vegas two days before those caucuses.

The state party chairwoman, Roberta Lange, says MSNBC and the Spanish-language television network Telemundo have agreed to host the event.

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6:35 p.m.

An outside group that's helping Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio is spending more than $1.5 million on digital and media advertisements in South Carolina and Nevada — the next states on the 2016 election calendar.

The new expenditures are by Conservative Solutions PAC, a super political action committee that faces no contribution limits.

All but about $200,000 is for South Carolina. That's according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Conservative Solutions is the second-most-active super PAC in the presidential race so far. Only Right to Rise, which is boosting Republican Jeb Bush, has spent more on television and radio.

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5:59 p.m.

Republican voters in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary are much more negative about their politicians than Democrats are about theirs.

That detail comes from early results of the exit poll conducted by Edison Research for the Associated Press and television networks.

Half of Republicans say they feel betrayed by politicians from the GOP. Fewer than 2 in 10 Democrats say they feel betrayed by Democratic politicians.

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5:58 p.m.

Early results from exit polling in New Hampshire are showing that voters are deeply unhappy with the way the federal government is working.

Half of Democratic voters say they're dissatisfied, with 1 in 10 saying they're angry. The sentiment is even higher among Republican primary voters: 9 in 10 voters say they're either dissatisfied or angry.

The exit polling is being conducted by Edison Research for the Associated Press and television networks.

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5:50 p.m.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is revisiting some past controversies as he greets voters in Manchester.

At Webster Elementary School, Trump was asked by a man who identified himself as a Muslim journalist about Trump's proposal to temporarily bar foreign Muslims from entering the U.S.

Trump brought up the ban again when asked by a foreign outlet outside the Northwest Elementary School whether he would maintain the country's relationship with Britain.

"When I talked about the ban," Trump says, "I received literally million and millions of responses all over the world from that. And the people in the U.K. were so incredible to me."

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5:18 p.m.

Donald Trump is airing a new television ad that bashes Ted Cruz as "the worst kind of Washington insider."

The two candidates are after the same voters, people who want to shake up the federal government by electing an "outsider" president.

The 30-second spot that started airing Tuesday says Cruz of "talks from both side of his mouth" on allowing immigrants who are in the country illegally to stay, and took "sweetheart" loans from Wall Street banks when he ran for Senate in 2012. Then the narrator says Cruz's presidential campaign employed "dirty tricks" when it sent word to Iowans on the night of that state's caucuses that Ben Carson might be dropping out.

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4 p.m.

Donald Trump is greeting voters face-to-face as they head to the polls.

"How's it looking, everybody? Good?" he repeatedly asked supporters who'd gathered at poll sites, waving signs.

Trump visited two voting locations — the Webster School and the Northwest Elementary School — and shook hands and posed for photos.

He's holding a party for supporters to watch the results come in Manchester Tuesday evening.

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2:18 p.m.

Ted Cruz says Donald Trump has no choice but to engage in profanity because the billionaire businessman can't defend his record.

A day earlier, Trump used a vulgar term for a coward to refer to Cruz, who briefly addressed the insult Tuesday afternoon as he greeted voters inside Manchester's Red Arrow Diner.

"Part of the reason that Donald engages in insults is because he can't discuss the substance. He can't defend his record. For example, a vote for Donald Trump is a vote for Obamacare," Cruz told reporters as he walked into the diner.

Trump has said that's a "lie." Cruz charges that Trump supports universal health care that could lead to health care rationing.

Cruz says, "Donald can't defend that. So instead, his approach is to engage in a profane insult. I'm not going to respond in kind."

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2:16 p.m.

A lot has changed for Bernie Sanders as he's risen in primary polls — starting with his ability to take a walk.

The Vermont senator was all but ignored by the media for more than a quarter-century in Congress. But on Tuesday the Democratic presidential candidate found himself swarmed by dozens of reporters as he strolled around the state capital.

"If we have a large voter turnout I think we're going to do just fine," he told the press.

Other questions were met with stony silence.

"What does he like about New Hampshire," shouted one reporter.

"Does he miss Vermont?" asked another.

Sanders didn't even crack a smile before jumping into a waiting SUV and taking off.

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1:40 p.m.

It seemed like a golden opportunity for Marco Rubio to convince a New Hampshire voter. But the Florida Senator couldn't seal the deal.

Rubio and Derry Republican voter Stephanie Tespas stood outside a middle school locked in a quiet and serious conversation about cancer.

Tespas told Rubio of her son's genetic condition, the same as her husband who battled and survived cancer. Rubio nodded and mentioned his own father's losing battle with lung cancer after a lifetime of smoking.

After Rubio thanks Tespas and got into his SUV, she said she remained undecided about who to support as she walked into the school to vote.

Tespas left the gymnasium without saying who she supported, except that it wasn't Rubio.

"I just don't think he's quite ready," she said. "I wanted him to be more personal. I felt like I was in one of his commercials."

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12:43 p.m.

Chris Christie isn't saying whether his campaign will continue after Tuesday's GOP New Hampshire primary.

At a noontime stop at a Derry restaurant, Christie refused to say what place he needs to come in at a minimum to continue his campaign.

"I don't get into that stuff. Next!" he said, calling on the next reporter.

Christie has hung virtually all of his White House hopes on a strong showing in New Hampshire. Other candidates, such as Jeb Bush, have said their campaigns will continue into the next states to vote, South Carolina and Nevada.

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12:22 p.m.

Jeb Bush is buoyed by some favorable poll numbers and growing crowds at his town halls. He's hammering away at front-runner Donald Trump and saying his own experience as a two-term Florida governor is a better presidential qualification.

Bush, appearing on Fox News Tuesday, says he's determined to knock down Trump because he says "this guy is not a conservative" and he cannot "win by insulting your way to the presidency."

Bush says he's the only candidate offering detailed plans to lift people out of poverty, raise middle class incomes and keep the country safe.

He says "that's what people want," not "the insults and all the divisiveness."

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