Today is round two for the Republicans with the New Hampshire Primary. Because primary dates are set by state law, there will also be a non-binding primary (a/k/a “beauty contest”) on the Democratic side (more on that below).
While there will be other candidates on the ballot, there are only two major candidates on the Republican side — Donald Trump and Nikki Haley. Given that New Hampshire has a semi-open primary in which independents can vote in either party’s primary, it is believed that there will be a significant number of “moderates” who opt to vote in the Republican primary. If there is a chance for Nikki Haley to win nationally, she needs a win in New Hampshire. Given Trump’s many issues (legal, physical, mental), the Republicans really do not need the chaos that would ensue if Trump “wins” the nomination but has to withdraw before the convention. (And while it is hard to project what the Supreme Court intends to do, it is easier for them to do the legally correct thing if Trump is not the presumptive Republican nominee.) New Hampshire is a proportional state, so unless Haley or Trump blows the other out of the water what really matters here is the perception that Haley can compete and beat Trump than the actual delegate count.)
On the Democratic side, the timing of the New Hampshire primary (set by state law) violates the national delegate selection rules. As a result, the primary is a non-binding primary. Because the New Hampshire Democratic Party has decided to resist the national rules and support the unenforceable state law mandating that other states let New Hampshire goes first, New Hampshire has had its delegate total reduced to ten delegates. More importantly, we do not yet have an approved plan for how those delegates will be chosen.