Nikki Haley holds first N.H. campaign rally amid whiteout snow conditions

Bretton Woods, N.H. — A snowstorm threatened to knock Nikki Haley off the campaign trail once again on Tuesday. But with the pressure mounting to beat former President Donald Trump in next week's presidential primary, Haley pressed ahead, campaigning at a luxury resort in northern New Hampshire.

Haley joked about the blizzard, which blanketed the area with more than 3 inches of snow, as she began her remarks. A crowd of roughly 150 people had gathered in a ballroom, some driving more than an hour and a half to see the Republican politician deliver her first speech in New Hampshire since she came in third in the Iowa Caucus.

“They came out in the snow, I love that!” Haley said as she walked in.

Haley is on a tour of the state that will have her making a repeat visit to an American Legion in Rochester on Wednesday evening where she conducted a town hall earlier in the campaign.

The former South Carolina governor gave a shortened version of her stump speech in Bretton Woods amid hazardous driving conditions that led a group backing Ron DeSantis to cancel an event featuring the Florida governor the next morning in nearby Jackson.

Campaigning alongside New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a major booster of her campaign, Haley said that after spending the last few days in Iowa, where there was a negative wind chill, "I will never say that again.”

“I know that y'all were waiting on the snow, and the snow is beautiful. It looks great. But I know it wasn't necessarily easy for you to get here, so thank you for taking the time to care and to come out," Haley said.

Haley's delivery of a well-worn campaign line that chaos follows Trump wherever he goes prompted loud applause from attendees of the event, which was held in a county the former president won during the contested 2016 battle for the Republican nomination.

The argument resonated with Karla Allen, a licensed forester and a resident of Center Ossipee. She came into the event undecided and left carrying a Haley yard sign.

"I really like Trump," Allen, 48, said.

But she said that she agrees with Haley that Trump's legal problems are too much of a distraction.

"Obviously he did somewhat of a decent job that she voted for him twice," Mike Eldridge, who attended the event with Allen, said of Haley, a former Trump administration official. "I voted for him twice. But unfortunately I feel like they're just going to continue to fight him."

Haley is appealing to disaffected Republicans and independents who can cast a ballot in either party's primary in the state of New Hampshire. She is also drawing support from Democrats, some of whom switched their party registration to support her in the Jan. 23 primary.

Chris Donahue, 56, of Holderness, a Democrat who said he drove an hour from his home in southern New Hampshire so he could “get better educated" on Haley's views, even though he is ineligible to vote for her.

“I’m just not real happy with how things are going. And I’m not afraid to say that I don’t think a woman leader would be a bad thing right now. Because us men can’t get it done."

If the general election were between Haley and President Joe Biden, Holderness said he would vote for Haley and that he regrets not dropping his party registration to be able to vote in the upcoming Republican presidential primary.

Haley for her part told New Hampshire residents who can vote for her next week that a blizzard like the one that depressed turnout in Iowa isn't awaiting them.

"The weather's going to be nice on Tuesday. Chris already checked," Haley said as she encouraged event attendees to vote.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Whiteout snow conditions didn't stop these New Hampshire voters from seeing Nikki Haley