Making her first appearance in New Hampshire in more than three months Sunday, Bachmann said that she hadn't visited the Granite State because she was busy fighting in Washington against raising the debt limit.

"You didn't see me a lot here in New Hampshire and I'll tell you why: It's because my first duty was to go back to Washington, D.C.," she told the crowd in North Conway, N.H., according to the Associated Press.

But Bachmann's debt-limit stand didn't stop her from visiting the other early primary states, and she missed an event in Iowa — not New Hampshire — as a result of the debt-ceiling vote.

Between her first New Hampshire appearance June 28 and the House's debt-limit vote August 1, Bachmann visited Iowa seven times and South Carolina twice, according to her public campaign schedule.

Iowa and New Hampshire are the first two states on the presidential primary calendar, and Bachman's campaign has said it's focused on the Hawkeye State, where the Minnesota Republican won the Ames Straw Poll. That's led the campaign to mostly ignore New Hampshire until now, as Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has a wide lead in the polls there. Bachmann began a four-day tour of New Hampshire Sunday.

In the final week before the debt-limit was raised, Bachmann missed 45 of the 62 House roll-call votes, which were held amid furious negotiations between House, Senate and White House officials. Bachmann, who opposed any debt-limit increase, spoke at the National Press Club and held a House press conference with Reps. Louie Gohmert of Texas and Steve King of Iowa.

She also found time for an event in Ankeny, Iowa, focused on the "debt limit crisis."

Bachmann voted against raising the debt limit on Aug. 1, and she was forced to call-in to a campaign rally in Newton, Iowa, in order to make the vote.

Since the debt limit was raised more than two months ago? Bachmann made at least 16 campaign swings through five states before Sunday's visit to New Hampshire, her public campaign schedule shows.