Sen. Ted Cruz is stumping for congressional hopeful Marilinda Garcia this weekend, just ahead of New Hampshire’s Republican primaries next week.  

The Garcia campaign invited supporters to attend a rally with the Texas Republican and potential 2016 presidential candidate Sept. 7 at the Nashua City Hall.  

Garcia, a state representative, is in a hotly contested nomination fight in the 2nd District, where Republicans are vying to take on Democratic Rep. Ann McLane Kuster. Garcia’s opponents include former state Sen. Gary Lambert, who has accused Garcia of supporting “amnesty” to undocumented immigrants.  

Garcia has disputed that contention throughout the campaign, including in a recent interview with CQ Roll Call. The backing of Cruz, who has been leading the charge against potential executive action by President Barack Obama to expand deferred action on immigration, could well inoculate Garcia against that line of attack days before the Sept. 9 primary. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday Obama’s move on immigration may or may not happen before the end of a summer deadline , but he made clear that it will happen. There’s been increasing suspicion that the action may not take place until after the general election in November.  

In the meantime, Earnest continued to push House Republicans to pass immigration reform.  

Beyond supporting Garcia , Cruz likely also has another primary in mind in the Granite State, which will host the first GOP presidential primary in 2016 — as it regularly does.  

The general election race is rated Leans Democratic by the Rothenberg Political Report/Roll Call.  

Steven T. Dennis contributed to this report.

Roll Call Election Map: Race Ratings for Every Seat


Get breaking news alerts and more from Roll Call in your inbox or on your iPhone.