WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Billie Veach didn’t pause to think last year when asked what issues matter most to her as an Iowa voter who will play an outsize role in selecting the Republican nominee for president.
New Hampshire
Iowa at odds with N.H. on abortion, posing challenge for GOP candidates
In New Hampshire — which will have its say on Jan. 23, eight days after the Iowa caucuses — another Republican couple wanted something very different. “I don’t think a bunch of politicians, mostly males, have the right to say you cannot do it across the board,” Joan McMahon said, prompting her husband to add, “It’s been kicked down to the states, anyone talking about it on the federal level is wrong.”
In GOP-controlled Iowa, where evangelical Christians dominate the caucuses, the candidates have many incentives to support abortion restrictions. But the same positions that appeal to Iowa conservatives can backfire in New Hampshire, a swing-state where independents play a large role and where a slight majority of likely GOP primary voters say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
The gap has at times created some awkwardness for the candidates as they toggle between the two states and attempt a careful balancing act. It has also amplified larger GOP divisions over abortion as candidates navigate competing pressures in a party that has struggled to find a politically effective general election message since a conservative-leaning Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022, generating wide backlash.
Voters in Iowa and New Hampshire have long gravitated to different kinds of candidates, and their differences on abortion have only sharpened in the first presidential election since the end of Roe, which guaranteed access to abortion nationwide.
Disappointing GOP losses over the past year-and-a-half haven’t deterred some antiabortion activists who play an influential role in the primary — even as many Republicans would rather minimize abortion’s role in the presidential race.
“We’re really not looking for a leader that just responds to the polls — we’re looking for the leader that will shape the polls,” said Bob Vander Plaats, an Iowa evangelical leader who has endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and is the president of a conservative Christian organization called the Family Leader.
The candidates have tailored their message to each state — and seen their applause lines in one place become vulnerabilities in another. More than three-quarters of likely GOP primary voters in Iowa say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, according to a CBS News poll from September, a stark contrast to New Hampshire, where 49 percent agree.
Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley’s appeals to find areas of “consensus” on abortion — and her declarations that she doesn’t “judge anyone for being pro-choice” — are especially well-received by many voters in the Granite State, where she has gained the most traction.
Now grappling with DeSantis for second place in Iowa, Haley’s campaign is running an ad touting the support of an antiabortion leader in the state, former Iowa Right to Life president Marlys Popma, who calls Haley “a sister in Christ.” No such ads are running in New Hampshire, where one campaign spot features Gov. Chris Sununu (R) praising Haley as someone who “understands fiscal responsibility and individual liberty.”
Haley has faced some skepticism among Iowa evangelical activists such as Vander Plaats, who pressed Haley at a Family Leader forum last fall.
“I had some pro-lifers say, that sounded like a pro-choice answer,” Vander Plaats asked Haley in front of a crowd of 800. “Can you assure them why that’s not a pro-choice answer?”
Put on the spot, Haley later said she would sign a six-week abortion ban in South Carolina if she were still governor there. Soon a rival 2024 candidate, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, was assailing Haley’s answer in New Hampshire, suggesting she sent a different message in Iowa. Christie, who staked his campaign there before dropping out on Wednesday, appealed heavily to centrist voters who are also key for Haley.
Former president Donald Trump, meanwhile, has run ads reminding Iowans that he appointed conservative Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe — even as he’s resisted calls to back a specific national limit on abortion and angered activists by calling six-week bans at the state level “terrible.” In many ways, Trump has nodded to both sides of a divisive debate regardless of the state where he is campaigning.
At a Fox News town hall in Iowa this week, one voter pressed Trump to “reassure” her he could “protect life without compromise.”
“You wouldn’t be asking that question, even talking about the issue because for 54 years they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it, and I’m proud to have done it,” Trump said to applause and cheers. But he added, “a lot of women don’t know if they’re pregnant in five or six weeks, I want to get something where people are happy.”
DeSantis and his allies have assailed those comments as they struggle to chip away at Trump’s daunting polling lead in Iowa — where GOP lawmakers passed a six-week ban. At a CNN town hall last week in Des Moines, DeSantis noted the former president’s 2020 speech at the March for Life in Washington. “Did he flip-flop?” DeSantis asked. “Did he not believe it at the time?”
Yet Trump hasn’t paid much of a political price for backing away from the restrictions he cleared the way for — even in the first-in-the-nation caucus state. He’s expanded his lead in the polls there as the caucuses near. “President Trump’s unmatched record speaks for itself,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in response to DeSantis’s criticisms.
DeSantis, who is pinning his presidential hopes on Iowa, promoted Florida’s six-week abortion ban on the trail in the Hawkeye State and attended an Iowa antiabortion group’s Christmas gala. In some visits to New Hampshire last year, he didn’t so much as bring up the issue. DeSantis has spent far less time and polls far lower in New Hampshire, where some voters cite his abortion stance as a turnoff.
“I’m a fiscal conservative, but I do not like conservative views on issues like abortion,” said Melissa Fitzpatrick, 45, an undeclared voter from Derry, N.H., who plans to vote in the Republican primary. Out grocery shopping this fall, she said DeSantis’s signing of a six-week ban in Florida added to her concerns about him — she believes “a woman’s body is her choice” — and was more drawn to Christie and Haley.
Abortion is legal in New Hampshire through 23 weeks of pregnancy, a sharp contrast to Iowa, where Republicans passed a six-week ban that is caught up in the courts.
Policy-wise, Haley and DeSantis’s stances on abortion are similar. Haley has said she will sign whatever restrictions can pass, suggesting that would reflect the will of “the people” in different jurisdictions. DeSantis has said the federal government should play a role in abortion but, like Haley, avoids espousing a specific limit.
But they’ve struck different tones and formed different alliances. Haley has the backing of Sununu, who supports significant access to abortion and recently scoffed at near-total ban proposed by a handful of state lawmakers, saying it was headed for the “crazy pile.” DeSantis has the endorsement of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), who has championed priorities of the base, including the six-week ban.
“If you like what we’re doing in Iowa, you’re going to love what Ron will do for this country,” Reynolds said Thursday at an event where DeSantis also spoke.
Despite their broad differences, Republicans in Iowa and New Hampshire are similarly skeptical that many antiabortion measures can pass at the federal level — regardless of who’s president.
Even at Billie and Lyle Veach’s evangelical church outside Des Moines — full of social conservatives who are politically active — many congregants thought Haley was smart to emphasize the political barriers to most national measures.
“I think it’s a realistic attitude about where the country is really at,” said Dave Bubeck, standing next to his wife, Denise, last fall.
Nodding to the church behind them, he said: “These people are completely pro-life. … And we are too. But I’m not opposed to the message that she’s saying. Because we live in a fallen world.”
Showing up to a DeSantis event this month, however, he was ready to serve as a “precinct captain” for the Florida governor on Monday.
“He’s clearly the strongest in his positions on being pro-life,” Dave Bubeck said.
Activist efforts to get the 2024 candidates to commit to specific national measures on abortion have been, in many ways, unsuccessful. Two presidential candidates who advocated a 15-week federal limit — former vice president Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) — dropped out this fall, unable to catch fire even with the socially conservative Iowans they heavily courted. Many Republican voters who oppose abortion do not view it as a primary issue in the presidential race, eager to elevate other, more unifying priorities or satisfied to see restrictions play out in the states.
“Leave it up to the states, leave it up to the people … let the general population decide how they want it,” said Wayne Defeo, a voter in his 60s who attended a DeSantis event in Laconia, N.H. and calls himself “pro-life.” He said the issue didn’t matter much in his vote.
“It’s probably a state issue at this point,” echoed Meg Jaques, 39, an Iowan who believes that life begins at conception. She wants candidates to share that belief but doesn’t fault them for steering clear of a specific national limit.
Kathy McNutt, 60, from the area of Gilford, N.H, supports restrictions on abortion but doesn’t hold Trump’s recent comments against him. “I think the Democrats have pushed the pendulum so far to the other side that any conservatism, to me, is better — is helpful,” she said.
New Hampshire
Opinion: The farm bill passed the House. Western New Hampshire got the bill. – Concord Monitor
In 1794, George Washington wrote that he knew of “no pursuit in which more zeal and important service can be rendered to any Country than by improving its agriculture.” Two hundred and thirty years later, the House just passed a farm bill that proves his successors stopped believing it.
Drive Route 12 through Walpole. Take Route 10 up through Haverhill. Cut across to Littleton, past the diner that has been feeding the town since 1930. The farms are there. Lush land that produces. People who work till their sweat and blood soak the ground they nurture. A region with every ingredient to feed itself.
What is not there is the processing facility that makes it worth raising the animal. The cold storage that keeps the crop from spoiling before it finds a buyer. The regional market that pays a price worth planting for. I want to believe Washington did not forget to build those things. Regardless, it built something else instead — a system that works beautifully for an operation running 10,000 acres in the Midwest and leaves the farmer on Route 12 doing the math at the kitchen table at midnight wondering if this is the last season.
And the 2026 Farm Bill just made that system more expensive to survive. Large commodity operations received a $54 billion subsidy increase over the next 10 years, with individual payment caps that can exceed $900,000 per operation. Is the farmer at your farmers market in position for this kind of payout?
The bill guarantees money, codified by law, for the people who need it least. Local food programs were reauthorized with zero mandatory funding, but plenty of empty words. They exist on paper and nowhere else. It means a farmer in Plainfield cannot count on them. It means Coos County, where one in seven people cannot reliably put food on the table, keeps waiting for help that has been promised and deferred so many times the promise itself has become an insult. Especially when supermarkets and superstores — just 15% of SNAP-accepting establishments — vacuum up nearly 74% of every food assistance dollar, while the local farm stand sees almost none of it.
And that is before the input costs.
Local farmers know this better than most. You buy fuel and fertilizer on global markets you have no vote in and no say over. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, causing record high prices for fertilizers globally, all because Russia is the world’s top exporter and suddenly it wasn’t exporting. And while that news cycle is long buried, remember that the Iran war has closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which a third of the world’s seaborne fertilizer travels. Diesel recently crossed $5 a gallon, which large trucks that move food and tractors rely on. Fertilizer went from $500 a ton to $850. One tractor cost $350 more than it did last year. You did not start either of those wars, yet you pay for both of them. And that is not even accounting for the sharp sting of tariffs on the inputs you depend on to plant next season.
Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies rose 55% in 2024. Then another 46% in 2025, and those numbers only count the farms that qualified for Chapter 12, which requires the majority of family income to come from farming. The ones that don’t qualify quietly disappear, not even a balance sheet to mark the years of struggle, labor and community these farmers gave. They just stop. Since 2018, this country has lost more than 158,000 farms, with every size category shrinking except operations over a million dollars in annual revenue. Those are still growing, and will do so as long as the policy is written to grow them. Another example of an unlevel playing field where the rich get richer.
To be clear about something: large-scale agriculture feeds a lot of people and nobody sat in a room and decided to destroy the small farm. But does intent matter when these are the results? The system produces what it was designed to produce. That is exactly the problem. It was not designed with you in mind, and after enough years of that, the results look intentional even when they are not.
I got involved locally here because I believe western New Hampshire has everything it needs to feed itself and then some. Four thousand farms, nearly half a million acres, led by a direct-sales culture that leads the entire country. What is missing is not the land or the people or the will. What is missing is a representative who walks into bill negotiations fighting for the farmer on Route 12 instead of the operation collecting a $900,000 subsidy check in a state they have never visited, and pretending it actually helps their constituents.
I have a specific plan for how existing federal dollars already flowing into this district get redirected toward processing, storage and regional market access that actually serves the farms here. No new appropriations. No new programs. A full breakdown is at livefreenh02.com/food-independence.
Daniel Webster, born thirty miles from where I am writing this, put it in the Capitol: “The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization.” Washington and Webster were not just statesmen. They farmed. They understood what was at stake when the land stopped producing for the people who worked it. The authors of the 2026 farm bill apparently do not.
Robbie Mahrou is an independent candidate for U.S. Congress in New Hampshire’s Second District and a Walpole resident. She can be reached out robbie@livefreenh02.com.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited Concord on Friday to discuss a new health initiative to prevent and combat Lyme disease.
The visit was part of the “Take Back Your Health” campaign tour, a multimillion dollar initiative to promote dietary changes and exercise as preventative measures for chronic illness. Kennedy has been traveling the country to outline projects, including changing federal dietary guidelines, gut microbiome research, and addiction recovery.
Kennedy said his goal was to reduce Lyme disease by 25% by 2035.
Kennedy announced that over $2 million of federal funding will be up for grabs for projects focused on the prevention and treatment of Lyme disease. The grants, through a program called LymeX, will be available to businesses, scientists, and the public.
At the press conference Friday, Kennedy said the grants will go to projects including education tools and public awareness campaigns, front-line solutions like medication, and AI technology.
“This initiative will harness artificial intelligence and open data to help patients with Lyme disease and other invisible illnesses. Get answers faster and connect to care sooner,” he said.
Lyme in NH
New Hampshire has long been one of the epicenters for Lyme disease. The state has the seventh highest rate of Lyme disease in the country, according to the most recent data from 2023.
Read more: It’s tick season in New England. Here’s how to stay safe.
Tick season is a well-established time of year in New England, with an increase in cases and hospital visits in April and May. Research from Dartmouth shows half of adult blacklegged ticks in the Northeast carry the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.
In a health advisory issued on Wednesday, State Epidemiologist Benjamin Chan pointed out that Lyme disease is one of the most common infections spread through tick bites. Other tick-borne infections include anaplasmosis, babesiosis, and Powassan virus.
Lyme is also the most common tick-borne illness in America, with an estimated 476,000 people getting the disease each year nationwide, according to the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Service.
Kennedy’s record on Lyme disease
In the past, Kennedy has promoted a conspiracy theory that Lyme disease was bioengineered by the U.S. military. Late last year, he advocated for an investigation into a possible link between the military and the disease as part of a provision in a new defense bill, Scientific American and Politico reported.
Around that time, Kennedy said many patients’ claims were ignored, and he announced that “the gaslighting of Lyme patients is over.”
As an anti-vaccine activist, Kennedy launched a bid for the Democratic nomination for president in 2024. He then ran briefly as an independent before quitting and endorsing Donald Trump.
Trump later nominated him for health secretary, and he was confirmed by the Senate in early 2025 on a party-line vote.
Kennedy is the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, and a son of Robert F. Kennedy, who was slain during his campaign for president in 1968. In his own bid for the White House, RFK Jr.’s name was never on the ballot in New Hampshire. In mid-2024, a UNH Survey Center poll found he mustered only 3% support among likely voters.
More resources
What to do if you’ve been bitten by a tick: Step one, don’t panic.
Tick season: How not to get bit
Editor’s Note: This is the latest installment in a series honoring Seacoast veterans’ military service and the organizations who support veterans sponsored by Service Credit Union. It appears each Friday. Nominate a veteran you know to be profiled by clicking on this link or using the form below. More than 85,000 veterans live in New Hampshire, according to the state’s Department of Military Affairs and Veterans Services. Here are some of the many services available to veterans, their families, caregivers and supporters in the state.
New Hampshire Division of Veterans Services
This is the state’s starting point for veterans’ assistance. It can be reached by phone at 603-624-9230 or 800-622-9230, and online at nhveterans.nh.gov/veterans-services. On this site, you can find an important guide to services for veterans and their families. The N.H. Guide to Veterans’ Services is a PDF that can be viewed online or downloaded and printed out, and contains a plethora of important information about all aspects of a veterans’ life. https://www.nhveterans.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt401/files/inline-documents/2021-07/nhes-031320-vets-dir-guide-final.pdf
N.H. Department of Military Affairs and Veterans Services
New Hampshire’s Department of Military Affairs and Veterans Services (DMAVS) has mission to oversee and support the Service Members of the New Hampshire National Guard (NHNG) and to provide quality services to the state’s veterans and their families, according to its website. Call 603-225-1200 or find it online at https://www.nhveterans.nh.gov. There is a list of the state’s regional Veterans Services Officers and how to reach them or make an appointment at nhveterans.nh.gov/veterans-services/vsos-and-sites
Veterans Count
Veterans Count, a program of Easterseals NH Vets Count, provides mental health counseling, care coordination, housing stabilization, substance use treatment coordination, benefits and resources connection, and emergency financial assistance to all who have served in the military regardless of service era, discharge status or VA eligibility. The program connects veterans and their families with the help and resources they need confidentially. Email intake@vetscount.org or call 603-315-4354 or learn more at vetscount.org. The statewide Veterans Count program has four regional chapters. You can reach the Seacoast chapter at vetscount.org/chapters/seacoast. Vets Count presents local events and fundraisers like the upcoming Veterans Count Pack & Boots 5K Road Race on Sunday, July 5 from 8 to 11 a.m. beginning on Pierce Island in Portsmouth and ending in Prescott Park. Service members, veterans and community members are invited to participate in the fitness event designed for all ages and abilities, which will include a Survival Run-All, where runners carry a pack equal to 10% of their body weight; a Kids Fun Run 100-Meter Dash, and a 5K Road Race. Register at https://vetscount.org/events/veterans-count-pack-boots-5k-road-race/
Veterans Inc.
Veterans Inc. is the largest provider of support services to veterans and their families in New England. Email info@vertansinc.org, call 800-482-2565, sign up for its electronic newsletter and visit veteransinc.org.
Veterans Benefits Administration
A good source of information for the federal government’s veterans’ benefits and where you can search to locate a variety of local offices for federal services. Visit benefits.va.gov/benefits.
Pease ANGB Retiree Activities Office
The Retiree Activities Office at Pease provides information, services and programs to military retirees — all ranks, all services. Its mission is to act as an interface between the active-duty and retired communities; keep retirees updated on various matters; provide information and services as necessary or appropriate; and to represent retired members at the base and Air Force level, according to its website 157arw.ang.af.mil/About-Us/Retiree-Activities-Office/ where you can sign up for a periodic newsletter. The office has limited weekly hours so check its website for when it’s open or call 603-430-2636 and email peaseangb.rao@gmail.com.
Community-based Military Programs
The mission of the state’s Division of Community Based Military Programs is to collaborate, coordinate, and communicate with military and civilian provider groups to promote the delivery of quality health care services to New Hampshire veterans, service members and their families. Visit nhveterans.nh.gov/community-based-military-programs.
National Social Work Program local representatives
There is a social work leader in every VA health care system to help veterans get the care they need, according to the VA website, and connect them to the appropriate VA employee to assist them. New Hampshire’s social work leader is Kristin Maxwell. Contact Kristin. Maxwell@va.gov or call 603-624-4366. Visit socialwork.va.gov/Social_Work_Leaders.asp#NewHampshire.
Veterans Crisis Line
Veterans in crisis or someone who is concerned a veteran is in crisis can reach immediate help by dialing 988, then press 1. This is the National Suicide Hotline and by pressing 1, you’ll reach those specifically trained in veterans’ needs and resources. Veterans don’t need to be enrolled in VA benefit or health care to access this help, and it’s completely confidential. Free and available 24/7 every day. The Crisis Line can also be reached at its previous number, 800-273-8255, by text at 838255 and through chat at VeteransCrisisLine.net/Chat.
Veterans Councils
Many cities and towns in New Hampshire have a Veterans Council to assist its residents. An example is Rochester’s Veterans Council at rochesterveteranscouncil.com or
Veterans Groups and Meetings
Community meetings and socials are a great resource for veterans looking for information and help. The Rochester NH Veterans for Veterans (facebook.com/groups/1258228782144974) meets every Tuesday from 9 a.m. to noon at the Rochester Community Center and is sponsored by Rochester Recreation. All Veterans are welcome to attend the open discussions, which sometimes host a guest speaker from a veterans organizations to help members find resources. The Portsmouth Senior Activity Center hosts a Drop-In Veterans Social at 1 p.m. every Wednesday sponsored by the local Daughters of the American Revolution. All are welcome.
Assistance for veterans
There are many non-profits that provide a specific service to veterans. Some are:
Vouchers for Veterans
This non-profit, which was founded in Rochester, N.H., recognizes and thanks veterans for their service by providing voucher so they can purchase locally grown and prepared food directly from farmers and growers at local farmers markets. Visit vouchersforveterans.org or find them on Facebook at Vouchersforveterans.
Roofs For Veterans and Roof-A-Vet
Two non-profits will provide veterans with a new roof. Find more info at roofvets.com/roofs-for-veterans and roofavet.org. There are many organizations like these that will assist a veteran with home repairs or renovations.
Northeast Passage
Northeast Passage, based at the University of New Hampshire, provides adaptive sports and recreational opportunities for veteran and active-duty service members of all service eras and all ability levels. Many programs are free through funding from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, a partnership with Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Operation Hat Trick and local organizations, according to its website. It offers veteran-specific events, group outings and competitive teams in sled hockey, wheelchair rugby, wheelchair lacrosse or power soccer. Visit nepassage.org/veteran-recreation.
University of New Hampshire Military and Veteran Services
UNH provides service and support to student veterans, service members and other military-affiliated students such as dependents. Contact Kalyn Ryll, director of military and veteran services, at Kalyn.Ryll@unh.edu or 603-862-3480.
Local VFW and American Legion posts
Find a local American Legion post at mylegion.org/PersonifyEbusiness/Find-a-Post. Find a Veterans of Foreign Wars post at vfw.org/find-a-post.
Elks programs for veterans
Many local Elks lodges have events or programs for veterans. The Elks have made a pledge “So long as there are veterans, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks will never forget them.” Its Elks National Veterans Service Commission helps local lodges provide services locally. The Portsmouth lodge is very active in helping veterans. Find more information at elks.org/vets/default.cfm?m=programs.
Service Credit Union thanks veterans for their military service and remembers all those service members currently deployed around the world. R.E.D. Friday stands for Remember Everyone Deployed on Fridays when some wear red to honor service members deployed worldwide.
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