MANCHESTER: New Hampshire heads to the polls Tuesday in the crucial first US presidential primary with Donald Trump pledging to bounce back and Hillary Clinton looking to narrow the gap on Bernie Sanders.
The small northeastern state, home to just 1.3 million, is the battleground that could shake out a crowded Republican field of candidates, pitting Trump and arch-conservative Senator Ted Cruz against more establishment candidates led by Senator Marco Rubio.
The high number of registered independents, who can choose to vote either Democrat or Republican, and the up to 30 percent of undecided voters in the final days mean everything is in play.
Snow fell heavily in the state late Monday, snarling traffic and creating a last-minute obstacle for voters and candidates who braved plunging temperatures and freezing winds.
"This is crunch time," the Republican frontrunner Trump told thousands of cheering supporters at an event delayed slightly by snow in Manchester.
"You have to go out, you have to vote, we have to celebrate tomorrow evening," he said.
"Let's have a big, big victory."
Trump has energized broad swaths of blue collar and generally less educated Americans, angry about economic difficulties and frustrated at what they see as their country losing its stature in the world.
But the New York billionaire will have to translate his soaring lead in the polls into a win if he is to recover from the embarrassment of finishing second behind Cruz in the Iowa caucuses last week that kicked off the presidential nomination process.
The rest of the Republican pack has been fighting it out for a victory, strong second or even solid third-place showing that can propel them onward toward South Carolina and Nevada.
A poor result will likely rupture the White House dreams for 2016 for former and current governors Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Chris Christie.
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