Iowans have selected the Democratic nominee six out the last nine times. One Iowa winner who didn't go on to win the nomination, Tom Harkin, hailed from the state. Only twice in the modern era, with Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter, did they go on to become president. New Hampshire has done a better job of picking presidents from both parties.

On Wednesday, Joe Biden got in on the action in Somersworth.

“At this rate, New Hampshire will be the first in the country to get to vote,” Biden half-joked as he assessed his own stumble into fourth place in Iowa. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it: We took a gut punch in Iowa. The whole process took a gut punch.”

The “not-so-friendly” rivalry, as one activist put it, is a boon to New Hampshire’s longtime elections chief, Bill Gardner, whose foremost and almost obsessive concern has been maintaining its “First in the Nation” primary status.

“Bill Gardner is the happiest person alive,” said Irene Lin, a Democratic strategist in New Hampshire who is managing Andru Volinsky’s gubernatorial campaign. “It just strengthens [New Hampshire’s] case for being first-in-the nation versus Iowa.”

If Iowa switches to direct-ballot voting, Gardner has said he plans to move the date of the New Hampshire primary up to be a week before. New Hampshire law mandates the primary election take place seven days before a “similar election” in any other state. For decades, Gardner has interpreted Iowa's caucus to be just different enough from New Hampshire's direct-ballot voting method to prevent it from being a direct threat.

Both Democratic and Republican party officials have worked with Gardner to secure the Granite State's status throughout his 40-year tenure.

Lin, who managed Democrat J.D. Scholten’s campaign against GOP Rep. Steve King in Iowa, is far from a critic of the state. As an intern for Howard Dean in Vermont, she says, Iowa broke her heart in 2004. But it restored her faith in democracy four years later when she worked on Barack Obama‘s campaign. As an expert on the agricultural economy, she argues that Iowa’s protected status ensures Democrats don’t turn their backs on rural voters.

“Look, we got an important Senate race; we picked up two congressional seats last cycle. Democrats shouldn’t give up on the farm economy,” Lin said, expressing a degree of sadness at the wave of stories that snickered at the caucus fiasco. But she’s concluded the caucuses have become too complex and cumbersome to continue.

“I think, hopefully, this buries the caucuses in general,” Lin said.

Just hours after landing in New Hampshire, Pete Buttigieg had a private, early-morning meeting with Jim Donchess, the mayor of the state's second largest and most diverse city.