Bachmann skipping N.H. for Iowa and S.C.
Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has replaced a weekend trip to New Hampshire with more time in Iowa and South Carolina.
Her campaign is not giving a definitive reason for the switch – and won’t comment on whether it means Bachmann is placing less of an emphasis on the first primary state.
The Minnesota congresswoman is expected to come to New Hampshire after the South Carolina trip, said Bachmann spokesman Alice Stewart.
Stewart said planned New Hampshire events were “just in the planning stages.’’
He added: “We had to shuffle our travel schedule around due to events that have come up.’’
While Bachmann is polling in second place in New Hampshire, she remains far behind the current frontrunner for the GOP nomination, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
Meanwhile, she is in the lead in recent Iowa polls.
Her faith-based conservative message could resonate better in South Carolina, which has strong evangelical presence, than in New Hampshire. It is among the least religious states in the country, with generally socially moderate Republican voters.
Bachmann had been scheduled to visit New Hampshire Sunday and Monday – right after Saturday’s Ames Straw Poll in Iowa. She was slated to speak at a town hall event in Windham, N.H., on Sunday and meet with two Republican groups in Deering on Monday.
Instead, Bachmann will attend the Iowa State Fair on Sunday and launch a bus tour of South Carolina with a rally and town hall meeting on Monday.
The cancellation has illustrated a disconnect between Bachmann’s national and regional staff.
Windham GOP Chairman Travis Blais told Politico that the national staff informed him of Bachmann’s cancellation, apparently without the advance knowledge of her New Hampshire staff.
Mattheu LeDuc, Bachmann’s director of operations in New Hampshire, said he was told by national staff that the cancellation was due to “pressing family matters.’’
He did not know Bachmann was going to South Carolina instead.
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