As rivals head to California, Biden chooses New Hampshire

Joe Biden won't be among the parade of White House hopefuls in California this week, skipping the Democratic National Committee's summer meeting to campaign in New Hampshire instead.

The former vice president will have the nation's first primary state essentially to himself.

Party activists will hear from more than a dozen candidates including Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris.

The choice reflects Biden's deliberate front-runner strategy as he continues to lead national and early state primary polls. He's choosing carefully when to appear alongside the candidates who are trying to upend him, and he's keeping a distance, at least publicly, from the party machinery that ultimately proved an albatross to Hillary Clinton in her 2016 defeat.

Biden's campaign manager will attend the party gathering on his behalf.