NASHUA — While Carly Fiorina took the stage in front of a crowd of hundreds and a bank of television cameras, the New Hampshire primary continued upstairs, where US Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky huddled with a group of 20 college students.
After his speech, Paul hosted three back-to-back meetings with liberty activists, college Republicans, and elected officials in different rooms on the top floor of the Crowne Plaza hotel. According to sources in the rooms, Paul sat, legs crossed in blue jeans and a red tie without a jacket, answering questions and asking one of his own: will you endorse my campaign?
While cameras captured a parade of speeches on stage, the weekend's true politicking took place outside the room. As the 19 potential or announced candidates spoke at the First-in-the-Nation Republican Leadership Summit this weekend, their competition spread out in nearby hotel and conference rooms to woo Granite State activists behind closed doors.
A good speech can give a candidate some temporary buzz, but winning the backing of a top state Republican this weekend proves more valuable in the long run. For the next nine months until the primary, they wield the candidates' keys to a house party or county GOP dinner appearance.
As a result, presidential campaign operatives viewed the weekend as an opportunity to privately work on building local campaign operations while the press were distracted with the show downstairs.
For example, also during Fiorina's speech, New York businessman Donald Trump held court in another non-descript conference room at a nearby hotel. He closed the deal with at least one activist: John Babiarz, a former New Hampshire Libertarian nominee for governor.
"He checked all the right boxes," Babiarz said in an interview later.
After that, Trump aides said he huddled in private meetings with US Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and 2012 New Hampshire Republican nominee for governor Ovide Lamontagne.
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On Saturday, US Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina had breakfast with the Steve Duprey, a former state Republican Party chairman. After Graham's speech at the summit, he was scheduled to privately meet with Ayotte and former New Hampshire governor John H. Sununu.
Meanwhile, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal was in Derry, where he held his own private breakfast with the 2014 Republican nominee for governor, Walt Havenstein, and major Republican activists like the chairmen of the Derry Republican Committee and the Belknap County Republican Committee.
But most of the action took place on the eighth floor of the Crowne Plaza hotel, where meetings were not only by invitation but also required a special key card to access the floor. The New Hampshire Republican Party booked the floor and worked with candidates to give them time slots.
On Friday, the rooms were mainly used by former Florida governor Jeb Bush and US Senator Marco Rubio, also of Florida, who hosted a reception there.
Fiorina likely understood the weekend's unstated purpose as well. While former Maryland governor Bob Ehrlich was making his pitch to the crowd, Fiorina was four miles away at a Surf Restaurant breakfast hosted by Nashua Mayor Donnalee Lozeau and a couple dozen others. Lozeau rarely does events for candidates, making the Fiorina shindig more important than anything happening that moment on the program.
After all, the New Hampshire primary has never been won in a hotel ballroom.
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James Pindell can be reached at James.Pindell@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jamespindell.