MANCHESTER, N.H. — Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson will not be in attendance at his own New Hampshire primary party, Politico reports.
According to a press release, Carson will fly to South Carolina Tuesday afternoon, before New Hampshire poll results start coming in. His election night party is scheduled to be at the Crowne Plaza in Nashua.
According to New Hampshire Republicans, Carson’s campaign seemed nearly non-existent.
New Hampshire Republican Party Area 5 Vice Chairman Alan Glasman told The Daily Caller last week the Carson camp was barely visible in the Granite State.
“You don’t hear much about him. I believe he has a bunch of events scheduled. I’ve been sending an email out to my mailing list of close to 500 people with all of the events and all of the candidates throughout New Hampshire. I haven’t had any events published in my mailing other than today when [The Carson campaign] got back to me and said they had two events,” Glasman said.
Carson campaign chairman, retired Major Gen. Robert Dees, disagreed with this assessment, telling TheDC on Saturday, “We have a campaign team that’s been working New Hampshire. We’ve been having events in New Hampshire. We don’t know why he, in particular did not get word on this,” noting later it is a “false narrative that he hasn’t been campaigning here.”
Dees added, “I’d like to be able help him out, because we have some things going on and we need to let him know about.”
Carson himself told TheDC on Saturday in a brief exchange he visited the state “many times — dozens.”
According to P2016.org, a site that tallies presidential campaigns’ visits and days in each primary state, the number of visits and days spent in New Hampshire by Carson pales in comparison to other primary candidates.
Dees responded to these numbers, claiming “that it is a false metric. The amount of days here does not equate to the quality of time or the quality of the content. Just being present in every county every day does not equate to someone who ought to be elected president of the United States.”
He explained further saying, “How effective have those candidates been in explaining how they’re going to keep the people of New Hampshire safe, unified? And How many of those candidates can present the strong moral compass and moral authority that Ben Carson can offer to them? So, yes, one of the metrics might be how often you show up, but the more important metric is what happens when you do show up and content and leadership you carry with you.”
According to the latest polls, Carson struggled in New Hampshire. A WMUR poll from Sunday shows him at two percent.