The 2024 United States presidential election in New Hampshire took place on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, as part of the 2024 United States elections in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. New Hampshire voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote. The state of New Hampshire has four electoral votes in the Electoral College.
New Hampshire was considered a potential battleground state due to the closeness of previous elections. In recent years, the state has shown a much more pronounced Democratic lean at the federal level, as at the time of the 2024 election, New Hampshire's congressional delegation has been entirely Democratic since 2017. As such, most news organizations generally considered the state to be leaning toward Kamala Harris.
New Hampshire was one of the last states called in favor of Harris. She won the state by about 2.8%, significantly closer than Joe Biden's margin in 2020, though moderately wider than Hillary Clinton's margin in 2016. This was Harris's narrowest margin of victory in any state. It was narrower than Nevada, North Carolina and Arizona despite not being as hotly contested by either candidate as those three.
New Hampshire had the closest presidential race out of any state in terms of the margin of raw votes, although the state closest in difference of percentage was Wisconsin.
This also marked the second of only two times that a non-incumbent Republican won the White House without carrying New Hampshire (along with 2016), and the third of only three times overall (along with 2004 and 2016) in which any Republican won without carrying the state. It is also the second time that a Republican has won the popular vote without carrying New Hampshire, with the first time being in 2004. Trump is the only Republican to win two terms without ever carrying the state at least once.
Primary elections
New Hampshire has held the famous "first-in-the-nation" primary since 1920. Delegates are elected separately from a non-binding poll, which dates from 1952. Candidates qualify by presenting a check for $1000 to the Secretary of State's office by a certain date.
Primary elections for both the Democratic and Republican parties were held on January 23, 2024.
Democratic primary
On February 4, 2023, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) approved a new 2024 primary calendar, in which the South Carolina Democratic primary would be held first on February 3, followed by Nevada and New Hampshire on February 6. New Hampshire Republican governor Chris Sununu, Democratic senators Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, and the state legislature vowed to continue holding the "first-in-the-nation" primary (as New Hampshire state law establishes) and ultimately did set an earlier date of January 23.
Showing solidarity with the DNC, Biden declined to appear on the state's primary ballot. Pro-Biden New Hampshire Democrats nevertheless launched a formal write-in campaign for him, but none of the state's delegates to the Democratic National Convention will still be binding.
No delegates were awarded from the January New Hampshire primary.
Republican primary
The New Hampshire Republican primary was held on January 23, 2024, as the second contest of the Republican primaries, held about a week after the Iowa caucuses. 22 delegates to the 2024 Republican National Convention were allocated to candidates who received at least 10% of the statewide vote. The primary was won by Donald Trump, who defeated Nikki Haley by eleven points.
General election
Polling
Kamala Harris vs. Donald Trump
Aggregate polls
Kamala Harris vs. Donald Trump vs. Cornel West vs. Jill Stein vs. Chase Oliver
Results
By county
Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican
- Carroll (largest city: Conway)
- Rockingham (largest city: Derry)
- Sullivan (largest city: Claremont)
By congressional district
Harris won both congressional districts.
Analysis
A rural New England state with a libertarian streak dominated by moderate voters, New Hampshire had backed Republicans in most presidential elections since the party's formation in 1854 up until 1988, except for Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and 1916; Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936, 1940 and 1944; and Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Since the early 1990s, however, the state has begun to lean toward the Democrats at the federal level, with Democrats carrying the state by single digits in every presidential election since 1992 with the exception of George W. Bush's narrow victory in 2000.
A study by the Center for Election Innovation & Research in July 2024 found that New Hampshire is one of only three remaining states (along with Mississippi and Alabama) to offer no early in-person voting option for the 2024 general election. The state also requires an eligible reason to vote by mail. By tradition, since 1960, all eligible voters of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire cast their votes at midnight on Election Day.
Harris suffered a setback, earning 2.13% less of the vote than Biden did in 2020. She ceded ground in every county across the state, while Trump flipped three counties: Carroll, Rockingham, and Sullivan. Trump won all three of those counties in 2016 before losing them to Biden in 2020; as a result, New Hampshire is the state with the most counties that have voted for Trump in 2016, Biden in 2020, and Trump again in 2024. He nonetheless became the first Republican to win the White House without carrying Hillsborough County since Richard Nixon in 1968. This is the first time since 2016 in which the state winner did not win a majority of the counties, with Harris and Trump winning five each.
Notably, on the same ballot, Republicans won the open governor race and expanded their majorities in both state legislative chambers.
The towns of Acworth, Berlin, Claremont, Francestown, Freedom, Greenfield, Hart's Location, Jaffrey, Langdon, Littleton, Lyndeborough, Martin's Location, Nottingham, Pembroke, Shelburne, Springfield, Stratford, Sullivan, Swanzey, Tamworth, and Temple all flipped to Trump after either backing Joe Biden, yielding a tie, or recording no votes in 2020.
Success and Wolfeboro both flipped to Harris after either backing Trump, yielding a tie, or recording no votes in 2020.