Meet the Democrat saboteurs who have registered as independents in New Hampshire to STOP Trump

Lifelong Democrat Hella Ross registered as 'undeclared' last yearShe is one of thousands to switch so they can vote in the state's GOP primary'We have to make sure that Trump is not the nominee,' she said 

Hella Ross marched against the Vietnam War and has been a Democrat for as long as she can remember.

On Tuesday she will vote for Nikki Haley in New Hampshire’s Republican primary.

‘We have to make sure that Trump is not the nominee,’ the told DailyMail.com a few hours before she attended a Haley rally in the New Hampshire town of Rochester.

If Haley loses in the first-in-the-nation’s primary then the 2024 Republican nomination is as good as Trump’s.

If Haley wins, it could be down to a small army of Democratic voters who knew enough about the state’s voting rules to register as ‘undeclared’ voters before October 6 last year.

Hella Ross, 69, switched her registration from Democratic to ‘undeclared’ last year so that she can vote in New Hampshire’s primary on Tuesday in an effort to stop Donald Trump

New Hampshire’s semi-open primary means independents can cast ballots alongside registered Republicans.

The strategy has infuriated Trump.

‘Nikki Haley in particular is counting on the Democrats and liberals to infiltrate your Republican primary,’ he told a rally crowd at Atkinson Country Club on Tuesday night.

He repeated the attack a night later in Portsmouth, saying it was no surprise ‘since her campaign is funded by Democrats.’

Bring it on, said Ross, 69.

‘That’s exactly what’s happening,’ she said. ‘And he’s pissed about it.’

Several political groups ran campaigns encouraging Democrats to switch allegiance for the primary before the deadline. And others are trying to woo independents to help stop Trump.

Robert Schwarz, of Primary Pivot, said Joe Biden was a shoo-in for the Democratic nomination race so Democrats should use their vote in a different way.

‘We feel that Donald Trump is a unique existential threat to our democracy,’ he said. ‘And so people that put saving our democracy over partisanship should should want to stop him.’

Ross was in the crowd to watch Nikki Haley in Rochester on Wednesday evening. She said she was ‘persuasive and smart as a whip.’ She plans to vote for the former South Carolina governor

The strategy has infuriated Trump who accused Haley of relying on Democrats and liberals who were ‘infiltrating’ the Republican primary

New Hampshire was hit by a blizzard on Tuesday, but the temperature is forecast to tick up by about 10 degrees next week which could trigger a record turnout in the state’s primary

He said 3,500 Democrats re-registered as undeclared last year in New Hampshire. If they all voted for Haley, that could give an anti-Trump candidate a one-point nudge in a primary that attracts about 300,000 voters.

More important, he said, was persuading tens of thousands more undeclared voters to take part.

His analysis is that Trump will get about 130,000 votes from his base. Increasing turnout with those undeclared voters is the best way to stop him.

Ross said that she had come to much the same conclusion last year while brainstorming with her friends.

She said she liked Chris Christie, but he had never got much traction. It was the same small set of people who turned up at each of his events.

Haley, however, had momentum.

‘She’s a woman of colour. She’s an Indian American. She’s a military spouse,’ said Ross, who worked in customer service at financial institutions before retiring.

‘So she has a lot of background in different facets of life. And she has a plan. She’s very persuasive. She’s smart as a whip.’

Haley appeared with New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu on Wednesday. He told DailyMail.com that Haley was bringing back a broad coalition of voters to the Republican Party

Haley built momentum through the end of 2023 but needs a strong finish in New Hampshire

Her stance on LGTBQ issues ‘needed a little work’ added Ross, who admitted she was also unimpressed by Haley’s recent flub when she failed to talk about slavery as one the causes of the Civil War.

Sometimes you have to give politicians a pass and look at the the bigger picture.

‘They’re not going to be perfect,’ she said. ‘And they’re going to have off days.’

Later, she joined a couple of hundred voters at the nearby American Legion Hall down to see Haley in person.

Also among the staunch Republicans was Lori Picarazzi, a 63-year-old interior decorator. She said she was still working out how to tell her 94-year-old father, who spent his life in Democratic local politics, that she was going to take part in the G.O.P. Primary.

‘I was planning to vote for Nikki Haley, just because I want her to win the New Hampshire primary and not Trump,’ said the lifelong Democrat.

After the event at the American Legion in Rochester, Haley spent an hour posing for pictures and chatting with supporters

‘But after I saw her tonight, I’m voting for her because I want her to be president not because I’m voting against Trump.’

She had just signed up to help out on primary day. But she added she was taking home any yard signs, at least not before she had phoned her friends and neighbors and explained her recent conversion.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu shrugged off Trump’s criticism that people like Picarazzi should not take part in the primary.

He said Haley’s conservative credentials were impeccable.

‘What an amazing opportunity for the Republican Party to start bringing folks back in, to have a conservative that isn’t scaring people away, that isn’t surrounded in chaos,’ he told DailyMail.com.

‘That’s exactly what we want.’

Similar efforts to court Democrats and independents are under way in other states, said Schwarz.

‘But our basic fundamental analysis at the beginning of this was that if Trump wins by a large margin in both Iowa and New Hampshire, then the race is effectively over,’ he said.