“He’s on a lark,” said Dante Scala, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire. “It just seems to be a hobby more than a campaign at this point.”

Other candidates who have Gingrich’s standing in the polls — basically, little standing at all — are camped out in Iowa, screaming for attention. But Gingrich is holding low-key events, such as observing the 4-H hog competition in a malodorous barn at a county fair in Osage, Iowa. That is when he shows up in an early state. He also is holding events close to home, such as visiting a homeless shelter in Georgia, a state with no importance in presidential politics.