“I think this is the most important battleground governor’s race in the entire country,” he said.

Shapiro gave a brief pep talk to several dozen Democrats holding signs under an overcast sky, causing motorists on Route 101 in Bedford to honk their horns.

“You are making a difference,” Shapiro told the group. ‘You are saving our democracy. You elect a great governor here who will get it done here in New Hampshire.”

Hours earlier, Shapiro had joined Craig for a joint performance at Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, where he delivered a similar message to a small crowd.

“I feel very hopeful and optimistic,” he said.

Asked about recent polling, Shapiro said he wasn’t concerned about the presidential race in New Hampshire.

“Remember, I’m from Pennsylvania, where race relations are less than one percentage point, so we’re not concerned about that,” he said. “We go out and work, and we expect the races to be close. They should be.”

A new poll released Wednesday evening by the Saint Anselm College Survey Center showed Craig trailing Ayotte, albeit by a narrow margin. Among likely voters, 49 percent said they would choose Ayotte and 46 percent said they would choose Craig if the election were held now, while 3 percent remain undecided, by a margin of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points.

The results show that Ayotte appears to be doing better in her race than former President Donald J. Trump did in his race in New Hampshire, something Ayotte will likely have to do on Tuesday to win. The poll showed Trump at 46 percent and Vice President Kamala D. Harris leading at 51 percent among likely voters in New Hampshire, with just 1 percent remaining undecided.

Neil Levesque, executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, said the poll showed Harris with “a solid lead” in the state.

New Hampshire isn’t considered a presidential battleground this year, but it is the toughest battle in New England, and the Harris campaign isn’t exactly taking that for granted. The candidate himself campaigned in the state in September, and President Biden visited in his official capacity this month to tout his administration’s work to reduce Medicare drug spending.

Shapiro, who was considered a top contender to become Harris’ running mate before Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was selected for that role, is perhaps the most prominent surrogate for Harris’ campaign and the Democrats at this stage.

Another high-profile surrogate, former President William J. Clinton, will be in New Hampshire on Friday, according to a Harris-Walz campaign official.

Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign exudes confidence. Karoline Leavitt, a national spokesperson for Trump’s campaign, said Wednesday morning during an appearance on the radio program “Good Morning NH with Jack Heath” that she believes Trump can win New Hampshire, her home state.

Trump had said in September that he would visit New Hampshire again before the election, but he has not set foot in the state since January’s presidential primaries. And it seems unlikely that he will return in the final days of the campaign.

“It could be possible,” Leavitt said Wednesday, “that someone on the Trump-Vance ticket will appear in the Granite State.”

Sean M. Spicer, who served as White House press secretary during the Trump administration, claimed on social media Wednesday that New Hampshire is “in play.”

“If Trump does that early on election night, it will be a big win,” Spicer wrote.

That doesn’t seem the most likely scenario, according to Andrew E. Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, which plans to conduct another election poll this weekend.

“I just don’t think it looks like New Hampshire is one of the states that the Trump campaign is really focusing on,” Smith said. “There are plenty of other closer states they need to win before they start worrying about a state like New Hampshire.”

Steven Porter can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @reporterporter. Amanda Gokee can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @amanda_gokee.