PLYMOUTH, N.H. - Ken Wiaren and his wife, Joanne, came to the Panther Pub in this mountain town Monday evening in the hopes of making their choice for president.

Wiaren, 57, a retired police officer from nearby Orford, supported eventual Republican nominee Mitt Romney in the 2012 primary. This time around, he said, he was looking for someone more conservative.

After weeks of researching the candidates, however, Wiaren said he was torn between U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

"I think Cruz is honest, and I like what he stands for, but I'm not sure," Wiaren said from a table in the corner of the restaurant. He was there to hear Cruz, who was on the fifth of 18 New Hampshire stops on a tour that has highlighted the Texan's viability but also shown the challenges that he faces, especially in states such as this snow-covered one.

For months, Cruz has focused his campaign on Iowa, which votes first and is full of evangelical Christians and others who love the senator's tea party brand of conservatism. But as he has gained steam in national polls, Cruz has redoubled his efforts in second-voting New Hampshire, which usually goes for more moderate Republicans and this year has been dominated by businessman Donald Trump.

The thinking, Cruz's supporters say, is that a strong performance in the Granite State - even if an outright victory is unlikely - will preserve momentum that comes out of Iowa and provide a springboard to South Carolina and the rest of the race.

"We have an opportunity here to cement the idea that Ted Cruz is the conservative candidate," said former New Hampshire House Speaker Bill O'Brien, who is helping head Cruz's state leadership team. "We can send a message."

O'Brien, who lost the speakership in 2012 but remains in the House, said Cruz has managed to expand his base of social conservatives to include libertarians, who helped former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul finish a strong second last time around. Ron Paul's son, Rand, has not caught on this year, creating an opening for Cruz, O'Brien said.

Recent public polling has shown Trump still dominating the field, with Cruz in the second tier with Rubio, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. But there have been recent signs that Cruz is making progress, including earlier this month when a super PAC supporting neurosurgeon Ben Carson abruptly disbanded and its staffers pledged to support Cruz.

"Conservatives are uniting behind Ted Cruz, and I'm one of them," said one of the staffers, veteran New Hampshire operative Sam Pimm, in an interview.

Applause on the stump

Cruz's stump speech also has drawn loud applause at crowded venues on every stop of his tour, including in Plymouth, where the Wiarens said they were impressed by specifics about what he would do on his first day in office - rescind executive orders, investigate Planned Parenthood and begin to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem - as well as his position against Common Core, the federal education standards.

Cruz also has benefited from an unusual dynamic three weeks ahead of the Feb. 9 primary, strategists say: Rubio, Kasich, Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush are duking it out for the mantle of the establishment candidate in New Hampshire, while several conservatives competing with the Texas senator have either dropped out or are not competing.

"Usually it's the other way around, with lots of conservatives and one establishment pick," said Dave Carney, an unaffiliated New Hampshire-based strategist who supported former Texas Gov. Rick Perry in 2012 and advises current Gov. Greg Abbott.

Perry's 2012 campaign focused on Iowa and, when he underperformed there, barely made a dent in New Hampshire. This year, he is among the conservatives who already have dropped out.

"Cruz hasn't really done anything to do well in New Hampshire," Carney said. "It's just that he's the last one standing. And now he could do really well."

Trump is the big challenge

Still, if Cruz has benefited from one unusual dynamic, he has run into a buzzsaw of another: Trump.

The businessman has loomed over the first two days of Cruz's five-day tour - including Monday, when the duo campaigned within 20 miles of each other.

The day before, at the first stop of Cruz's trip, at an Italian restaurant in Milford, the first question from the crowd was about Trump. Then, before a town hall Monday in Washington, population 1,123, Cruz escalated his criticism of Trump in a news conference, saying the businessman was no Ronald Reagan.

And Monday night, at a town hall in Whitefield, Cruz went further than he has before publicly in calling Trump a fake conservative. "The stakes are too high. We cannot get burned again."

Given Trump's polling lead, some strategists expected Cruz to write off New Hampshire. But after a two-month absence from the state, the senator's bus tour is meant to send a message about his competitiveness. The campaign has 10 paid staffers in the state, as well as a residence for volunteers, and the candidate is planning to return here after the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses, said Ethan Zorfas, Cruz's state director.

Whether Cruz is making inroads among supporters of Trump and his other rivals is an open question.

After a Monday campaign stop at a diner in Keene, Malia Boaz, 64, who lives in Westmoreland but spent 30 years in Texas and volunteered on Cruz's 2012 Senate campaign, said she loved him but would be voting for Trump.

"We need a bulldog," Boaz said.

But a few hours later, at the Panther Pub in Plymouth, a different voter reached a very different conclusion.

Asked whether he had been won over, Ken Wiaren did not hesitate.

"He sealed the deal," he said with a smile. "I'm voting Cruz."