By John Whitesides and James Oliphant
KEENE/NASHUA, N.H. (Reuters) - A day before New Hampshire votes in its Democratic presidential primary, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg sought on Monday to build on their strength as front-runners in an up-for-grabs race as an energized Senator Amy Klobuchar gained ground.
Buttigieg and Sanders, who emerged first and second in delegates in the debut nominating contest in Iowa last week, face eight rivals in Tuesday's vote. But Klobuchar pulled into third place in two opinion polls.
The man they are all seeking to take on in the November election, Republican President Donald Trump, will try to command the national spotlight with a campaign rally of his own on Monday night in Manchester, New Hampshire.
The large number of Democratic candidates and undecided voters makes the outcome of the New Hampshire contest unpredictable, said Ray Buckley, chairman of the state Democratic Party.
"This is anyone's race to win," Buckley told reporters on Tuesday. "That makes these final hours even more exciting."
One undecided voter, 65-year-old Stacy Sand, showed up to see U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren but remained torn between her and Klobuchar.
"I might just be deciding as I head into the polls," Sand said.
Here's a look at Monday's action on the campaign trail:
'DECISION TIME'
Sanders, 78, a progressive who represents neighboring Vermont in the U.S. Senate, has long led in opinion polls in New Hampshire. But Buttigieg, a 38-year-old moderate and military veteran who served two terms as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has picked up ground since Iowa.
In Plymouth, Buttigieg tried to reach out to undecided voters, referring to "future former Republicans" who he said were more than welcome to back his campaign.
"It's decision time," Buttigieg said. He took a shot at Sanders, saying that the self-described democratic socialist would have a hard time pulling in moderate voters. "Knowing how much depends on bringing Americans together, we cannot risk alienating Americans at this critical moment," he said. "And that's where I part ways with my friend Senator Sanders."
In a separate event, Sanders aimed his attacks at Trump.
"I know not everybody agrees with everything I say, but I think what we can agree about is that we cannot continue having a president who is a pathological liar," Sanders told a crowd at a sports club in Manchester.
The Sanders campaign on Monday formally requested the Iowa Democratic Party recount some of the state's results from its caucuses, citing 28 precincts where the campaign believes he was shorted delegates.
'LONG TIME COMING'
A pair of polls released late on Sunday and early on Monday showed Klobuchar pulling into third place behind Sanders and Buttigieg following the party's debate in New Hampshire on Friday.
"We feel the surge, for me it's been a long time coming," said Klobuchar, a moderate from Minnesota, noting she had visited New Hampshire 23 times since she entered the presidential race a year ago.
Klobuchar told a crowd of more than 200 at Keene State College that she was the candidate who could appeal to independents and Republicans disenchanted with Trump's divisive policies and rhetoric.
"There are a bunch of moderate Republicans and independents out there who feel this and know just what I'm talking about," she said. "You need a candidate with big coattails who brings people with her."
Although she criticized Buttigieg in Friday night's debate, Klobuchar refrained from mentioning any of her rivals on the campaign trail, sticking to her promise to unite the country, lower drug prices, improve infrastructure and increase funding for treatment of drug addiction and mental health issues.
A Boston Globe poll, conducted with Suffolk University and WBZ-TV, showed Sanders with 27%, Buttigieg with 19% and Klobuchar with 14% among 500 likely voters polled over the weekend in New Hampshire. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
A separate poll by WHDH/Emerson College also showed Klobuchar pulling into third.
Klobuchar rose after former Vice President Joe Biden, a fellow moderate, stumbled in Iowa and showed an uneven performance in New Hampshire, where he called a voter on Sunday "a lying dog-faced pony soldier."
'CHARACTER FOR CASH'?
Biden on Monday turned his attention away from his Democratic rivals and squarely back to Trump.
Speaking before a crowd of fewer than 100 people in Gilford, Biden tried out some new attack lines, arguing that Trump was benefiting from economic policies put in place by his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, and did not deserve credit for America's robust economy.
"Trump is going to tell us over and over again the economy is on the ballot this year," Biden said, "But something else is on the ballot. Character is on the ballot. The character of this country is on the ballot.
"No previous president of the United States has ever asked us to trade our character for cash," he said.
The Sanders campaign expects to draw a large crowd in Durham on Monday evening when U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive star, and rock band The Strokes join him for a rally.
Cynthia Nixon, who co-starred in he 1998-2004 TV hit "Sex and the City," and unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for New York governor in 2018, appeared at a Sanders rally, declaring herself "all in for Bernie."
Warren began her day in the mountain town of North Conway with a 2-mile walk in the snow to McDonald's for breakfast. She made phone calls, wearing a black baseball cap emblazoned with: "Make Earth cool again."
"It's a beautiful day for democracy!" Warren said.