Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders face off Thursday in the first debate since their bruising Iowa clash that the former secretary of state won by a hair, as they gear for a battle royale in New Hampshire. Republicans too were swarming the Granite State ahead of the crucial February 9 vote, with national frontrunner Donald Trump eager to reclaim the lead after he was beaten in Iowa by arch-conservative Senator Ted Cruz.
The billionaire Trump also faces a sudden, dramatic rise by Senator Marco Rubio who is gaining traction among mainstream GOP voters. Sanders, an independent US senator from neighbouring Vermont, is riding high in the polls - this week's 7News tracking poll shows him ahead of Clinton by 22 percentage points. And he came out of Iowa claiming moral victory, having drawn nearly even with his rival in the first vote of the 2016 presidential nominating contest.
Clinton clinched the narrowest victory in Iowa caucus history with 49.8 percent compared to 49.6 percent for Sanders, saving herself the embarrassment of reliving her bitter 2008 defeat to Barack Obama. She is aiming to substantially cut into Sanders's New Hampshire lead and regain some momentum going into friendlier territory later this month in Nevada and South Carolina. Thursday night's showdown will be their first without Democratic challenger Martin O'Malley, the former Maryland governor who exited the race after a poor showing in Iowa. With just the two on stage, Clinton and Sanders will square off over their key differences on foreign policy, guns, health care and taxes.