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\"If I get smoked in New Hampshire, I’m going home,” Kasich told town hall meeting attendees in Claremont Tuesday. \"If I do well in New Hampshire, I’m going forward. So it’s all up to you, OK? I’d like to have your vote.”

Jeb Bush

Bush has, perhaps, the most to lose, and gain, here in the Granite State. Once the presumptive nominee with the staggering war chest, Bush now desperately needs this state to prove to his long list of donors that he deserves to remain in the race.

Unlike the other two governors, he has more viability outside of New Hampshire: He has a well-organized operation in South Carolina and is counting on Nevada to help bolster his cause. The former Florida governor, 62, relies heavily on his record and regularly goes after front-runner Donald Trump, calling him a “loser” for his disparagement of Sen. John McCain, Latinos, women and the disabled.

Though he bested Kasich and Christie in the Iowa caucuses, he amassed less than 3 percent of the vote, a dismal finish for a candidate whose super PAC spent over $2,800 per vote in the state.

During Bush's town hall in Hanover Wednesday, he had a moment that could very well become emblematic of his ailing campaign.

After laying out the argument that is the crux of his message, Jeb asks crowd to \"please clap.\" They happily oblige. https://t.co/rF5L7IxAiN

— Candace Smith (@CandaceSmith_) February 3, 2016

He spoke of the need for a quiet steadiness in a president, not the bombast that has infiltrated the race.

\"Here’s my pledge to you, I will be a commander in chief who will have the back of the military. I won’t be out there blowharding, talking a big game without backing it up. I think the next president needs to be a lot quieter but send a signal that we’re prepared to act in the national security interests of this country.”

As silence then permeated the air, Bush said, disheartened:

“Please clap.”

The crowd laughed and happily obliged.

Chris Christie

The straight-talking governor of New Jersey, who has built his campaign on a strategy of winning over New Hampshire voters through extended town hall meetings and personal interactions, returned to the Granite State Monday afternoon before the caucuses got underway, declaring Iowa in the “rearview mirror” and basking in his return to the state that is responsible for giving his candidacy a second look after a slow start.

Christie, 53, long said it was his goal to be the governor who placed the best in Iowa and New Hampshire. But following a last-place finish among the governors in the caucuses, Christie has all but ignored the other governors in the race and has instead placed his focus on pummeling Rubio, who came in third in Iowa.

Calling Rubio “the boy in the bubble” and the master of the “drive-by town hall,” Christie has been relentless in his attacks on the Florida senator who poses an equal threat to all three governors as the leading candidate in the “establishment” lane.

Over the course of his campaign, Christie has focused heavily on racking up endorsements of current and former elected officials in the Granite State. And on Wednesday, he celebrated that he had won over the coveted endorsement of New Hampshire Speaker of the House Shawn Spicer.

NH Speaker of the House endorses Chris Christie 6 days out from first-in-the-nation primary pic.twitter.com/qq0CYOhiAj

— Jordyn Phelps (@JordynPhelps) February 3, 2016

Christie also proudly touts his endorsements from two of the region’s leading conservative newspapers, The New Hampshire Union-Leader and the Boston Herald.

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