NASHUA, N.H. — As seven Republican candidates made their case at Saturday’s First-in-the-Nation Presidential Town Hall in Nashua, much of the focus on stage and behind the scenes centered on the one who wasn’t there.

With 17 days until New Hampshire votes, Donald Trump skipped the state’s final pre-primary cattle call to campaign in Iowa. But his rivals for the Republican nomination kept him in the spotlight, even as they ignored candidates closer at hand and in the polls.


Though Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are locked in a struggle to become the choice of the Republican establishment here, none of them mentioned the others — or Gov. Chris Christie, who bailed on the event to oversee New Jersey’s blizzard response — in their speeches.

Instead, Bush launched into an extended broadside against Trump. “He’s a gifted entertainer, but he’s not a conservative,” said Bush. “In less than a decade, Donald Trump’s views … have gone from extreme left to I don’t know what.”

Bush went on to criticize Trump’s praise for single-payer health care, past political contributions to the Clintons and his bombastic style. “It is not a sign of strength when you say a POW is a loser because they got caught,” said Bush. “It is not a sign of strength to disparage the disabled in this country. It is a sign of deep insecurity and weakness.” At a rally in November, Trump appeared to mock the physical handicap of a New York Times reporter, though he has denied it.

As several other candidates have done since Trump surged to the top of the polls last summer, Bush borrowed from the businessman’s campaign slogan, vowing, “We will restore America’s greatness.”

Unlike Trump’s boisterous rallies, Saturday’s town hall was a placid affair. The state party sold 759 tickets to attendees. They offered much polite applause but little boisterous cheering, and did not, at any point, fill all the seats in the ballroom.

“People are here, OK. They’re quiet. There’s a lot of enthusiasm, but it’s kept within themselves,” said State. Sen. Sam Cataldo, a supporter of former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore. “They’re very low-profile right now, which is good.”

After his speech, Kasich called on a questioner who asked whether a person who disparaged John McCain for being captured by the enemy while serving in Vietnam — as Trump did in July — is fit to be commander in chief. “You can't be serious asking me that question,” the Ohio governor responded.

Carly Fiorina opened her address by decrying a political system in which, she said, politicians like Hillary Clinton sell influence to wealthy people like Trump. Gilmore, who has toiled in obscurity and languished in the polls, vowed that if elected, he would regulate excessive media coverage of candidates as campaign contributions. Speaking with POLITICO after the speech, Gilmore cited instances of coverage of Trump specifically that he believed should be regulated.

Meanwhile, the old guard of New Hampshire Republican politics is openly rooting for Trump’s lead in the state to collapse, both because they object to his rhetoric and because the prospect of his winning the state without observing the traditions of intimate retail campaigning threatens New Hampshire’s privileged place in the nominating process.

“I genuinely worry about losing that, and that’s not something I want to lose without a fight,” said one senior Republican in the state, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid offending the Trump campaign.

On Friday, when inclement weather prevented Dick Cheney from reaching the event, the state party instead pulled in Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, a harsh critic of Trump, to deliver remarks at an opening dinner.

For its part, Trump’s campaign unveiled its own town hall on Friday, scheduled for Jan. 29 at the same Radisson Hotel in Nashua, six days after the state party’s event.

Former Gov. John H. Sununu expressed confidence the state would ultimately reward the type of campaigning that has won New Hampshire primaries in the past. “Most of the candidates are in the state [and] are doing a ‘See me, feel me, touch me’ campaign, and I think most of the voters will support them,” he said.

Bush, Kasich and Rubio were among the seven candidates attending. The three, along with Christie (who flew back to New Jersey to brave the snowstorm) are vying to become the lone establishment answer to Trump and Ted Cruz, a path that requires a strong finish in New Hampshire. Trump has held fewer intimate events in the state — even his town halls tend to draw upwards of a thousand people.

While Trump is competing in both Iowa and New Hampshire, the other candidates skipped Saturday’s town hall — Cruz, Ben Carson and Mike Huckabee — are relying more on strong finishes in Iowa.

Trump’s snub of the Nashua event comes as his campaign pushes, unsuccessfully, for the ouster of Jennifer Horn, the chairwoman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, which hosted the event.

Rather than Horn, it was the state party’s vice chairman, Matt Mayberry, who enjoys a better relationship with Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who called Lewandowski to invite Trump to the event, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation. The campaign declined the invite.

In November, Horn had said of Trump’s operation, “Shallow campaigns that depend on bombast and divisive rhetoric do not succeed in New Hampshire, and I don’t expect that they will now.” The comment prompted Trump’s New Hampshire chairman, state Rep. Steve Stepanek, and his allies, to call for Horn’s resignation, saying she violated party neutrality rules.

“Another elitist who thinks they know better than tens of thousands that support Trump at events,” tweeted Lewandowski, who knew Horn through his prior work for American for Prosperity in New Hampshire, where he lives.

Last month, Trump supporters in New Hampshire, including campaign staffer Joshua Whitehouse, said they had gathered the 50 signatures from members of the state party committee — which numbers about 500 — required to force a meeting on Horn’s removal. But a state party official told POLITICO this week that no petition has been delivered.

And the rest of the party is standing behind the chairwoman. “I think Jennifer Horn is doing a fantastic job as chairman of the New Hampshire GOP, and anyone who doesn’t feel that way either doesn’t understand how hard that job is or anything about politics,” said Sununu, a former chairman of the state party himself.

“The Republican party chair in New Hampshire is a thankless, thankless job,” said Ryan Williams, a Republican strategist and former communication director for the state party, who has also served as a spokesman for Mitt Romney. “There’s a certain role there to be a steward of the state and make sure candidates are coming to the state and respecting the traditions.”

Daniel Strauss contributed to this report.