New Hampshire congressional candidate Karoline Leavitt is betting on Trump

New Hampshire primary voters won't be casting any ballots until September. But that doesn't mean the races aren't heating up right on schedule.

In particular, the GOP primary for New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District has attracted a wave of national endorsements as the scene is set for a Republican to unseat Democratic incumbent Rep. Chris Pappas. After redistricting maps are officially approved, Pappas' seat will become what the National Republican Congressional Committee is calling a "prime pick-up opportunity." 

One candidate vying to take Pappas' job is 24-year-old Karoline Leavitt, who, if elected, would supplant Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) as the youngest member of the House of Representatives — and Leavitt has Cawthorn's blessing to do just that. 

"Karoline is an America First Patriot who won't bend to the Radical Left," read Cawthorn's endorsement of Leavitt. "We need fighters who aren't afraid to stand up for what is right. New Hampshire, send me Karoline!"

Until last year, Leavitt was living in Washington, D.C., fighting for the agenda of Donald Trump, working first for then-White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, and then as the communications director for New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, currently House GOP Conference chair. Stefanik, who has worked to ensure her endorsements are a valued commodity this cycle, has already offered hers to Leavitt.

In a field that includes former Trump State Department official Matt Mowers, Gail Huff Brown, the broadcast journalist wife of former Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), and New Hampshire state Rep. Tim Baxter, Leavitt is defining herself as the true America First option.

Earlier this week, Leavitt provided a glimpse of her hardcore MAGA messaging when she addressed the latest development in Special Counsel John Durham's investigation into the origins of "Russiagate" — an explosive court filing alleging that Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign hired information techs to mine Trump servers for data "to establish 'an inference' and 'narrative' tying then-candidate Trump to Russia."

It's the "greatest political scandal in American history," said Leavitt during an appearance on RAV TV's "Dr. Gina Primetime." 

"Donald Trump was right from the very beginning," she said, adding that "when we take back the House in 2022," Republicans will hold those involved accountable.

"Any Republican that is running for office who does not pledge to investigate this, to put Hillary Clinton behind bars, to prove that Donald Trump was in fact right, should not be elected to office," she said.

Leavitt has raised an impressive sum thus far in the campaign, and banked endorsements from heavy-hitting D.C. Republicans, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz  and Stefanik. 

Although she has yet to snag an endorsement from Trump himself, her views on the GOP's future could hardly be in closer alignment with those of the former president. "The party has been way too weak for far too long," Leavitt told Just the News.

While the primary is still more than six months away — New Hampshire has one of the quickest pivots to the general of any state — Leavitt is challenging the others in her race to define themselves against her outspoken support for the former president and his policies, including a focus on election integrity in her home state.

Her nearest competition, Matt Mowers, appears more ambivalent about which lane of the Republican Party he is running in. During his last run for Congress, in 2020, Mowers received the endorsement of then-President Trump two months ahead of his blowout primary victory before losing in the general to Pappas. He has said he would welcome Trump's endorsement a second time.

Mowers has admitted to reservations about the administration of the 2020 election, "but based upon on what I see and votes that were cast," he told WMUR radio last year, "the guy who got the most votes is sitting in the White House." Such a view is not likely to improve his chances of snaring an endorsement from Mar-a-Lago. 

Mowers, like Leavitt, is a Trump administration alum, but during his time at the State Department he worked as chief of staff to Dr. Deborah Birx. The leader of the White House coronavirus task force, Birx parted with the president on icy terms when she decided to retire from government following public backlash she received for appearing to flout the very social distancing standards she'd been instrumental in crafting. 

Mowers has also received the endorsement of former Ambassador Nikki Haley, another Trump administration survivor whose relationship with the former president is publicly tense. Further underming Mowers' MAGA credentials are his ties to Trump frenemy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whose advocacy group provided nearly all of the funding for a super PAC that backed Mowers' campaign during his last spin around the congressional campaign block.