Everything you need to know about the 2020 race in New Hampshire today
February 8, 2020MANCHESTER, N.H. — The Democratic presidential candidates are fanning out across New Hampshire in force on Saturday, blanketing the state in late campaign activity to go along with a layer of snow that fell this week.
A range of different factors kept the candidates from really barnstorming New Hampshire the last few days, from the Iowa caucuses Monday night to the end of the impeachment trial on Wednesday to preparations for Friday’s debate. But they have a packed schedule of rallies and events launching volunteers on get-out-the-vote drives on Saturday, and they are filling the state with high-profile campaign surrogates to multiply their campaigns’ reach ahead of Tuesday’s primary.
The latest polls show Bernie Sanders holding the lead in the state but Pete Buttigieg rising quickly behind him after they finished as the top two Democrats in Iowa, and Sanders aimed a few hits at Buttigieg before and during Friday’s debate, criticizing him for getting financial support from billionaires. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Joe Biden joined them in leaning hard on tested lines from their stump speeches, trying to introduce themselves voters who still may be undecided.
The candidates will come together for a huge state party conclave in the evening, the annual McIntyre-Shaheen dinner, before thousands of attendees at a big arena in Manchester — perhaps the last time they’ll all be in the same place making their case to voters and activists before the primary.
Here’s everything you need to know about Saturday’s strategy, where the campaigns are and what they are doing. Our reporters will be fanned out across the state following all the top campaigns — so check back throughout the day as we update this story with key moments and new developments on the campaign trail.
11:24 a.m.
Biden sharpens attacks on Sanders, Buttigieg to kick off three-day N.H. tour
Biden started his three-day spring to the first-in-the-nation primary in the bitter cold of Manchester at a New Hampshire food bank. Billed as an off-the-record stop (no questions from the press, no speeches), the stop highlighted what Biden loves best about the campaign trail: making small talk with regular folks, shaking hands and taking selfies.
From there, Biden headed to The Rex Theater, a small venue in downtown Manchester where he gave his standard stump speech about how this presidential campaign is for the “soul of the nation.” Biden has added a wrinkle to his speeches since coming in a disappointing fourth in Iowa by pointedly criticizing Bernie Sanders as a socialist and Pete Buttigieg as too inexperienced, a theme he echoed the night before at Friday’s debate at St. Anselm College.
Biden has two more local stops before finishing the evening at the 100 Club Dinner event in Manchester.
-Marc Caputo
10.38 a.m.
Sanders: Wealthy voters welcome 'if you believe in the concept of justice'
Are wealthy people welcome in Bernie Sanders' political revolution?
The Vermont senator was asked that question by MNSNC anchor Stephanie Ruhle at the Our Rights Our Courts New Hampshire presidential forum in Concord Saturday morning.
"One might argue that Bernie Sanders does stand for that person who is struggling, who wants to rise up," she said. "But what about that affluent person? Are they welcome in your modern family?"
Sanders, who performed best among low-income voters in the Iowa caucuses, according to Associated Press/Fox News polling responded affirmatively while stressing that he is focused on the working class. He said that the "more human life" is about improving the lives of others.
It was a fascinating moment, especially given the question was posed by Ruhle, a former banking executive who is a face of the "corporate media" that Sanders frequently criticizes.
"We certainly welcome you into our movement if you believe in the concept of justice," Sanders told Ruhle. "Not greed, not corruption, not lies, but justice and compassion."
In other words, Sanders' message to rich voters is to ask them to be allies to the working class, which he said is "not making a nickel more" than it did 45 years ago. He frequently pitches a similar theme of solidarity and voting beyond one’s self-interest on the campaign trail. But will well-heeled voters buy into that argument?
Of course, Sanders doesn't need to win over the 1 percent: They're only 1 percent of Americans. But if he could perform better among upper-middle-class voters, it would help him stave off rival Pete Buttigieg in New Hampshire, who has surged in the granite state on the heels of a strong performance in last Monday's Iowa caucuses, where he did especially well with better-off voters.
-Holly Otterbein
8:56 a.m.
Buttigieg lays out how he'd deal with McConnell at courts forum
CONCORD, N.H. — Buttigieg has four events across the state Saturday, and by 8:30 a.m., microphone in hand, he was at a forum on court reform telling several hundred voters that the issue is personal to him, saying his marriage is only possible "by the grace of a single vote."
Buttigieg walked through his idea to expand the Supreme Court, but the focus of conversation revolved chiefly around the current setup in the courts and the prospect of working with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
"Power is the only language the Senate GOP responds to," Buttigieg said. He added that "we don't have to imitate those we're fighting to box them out," though Democrats' "fair play" has "come back to bite us." Asked if Trump's confirmed Supreme Court justices are "illegitimate," Buttigieg called it "problematic at best."
"There is a stain on the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh," he added.
Onstage, Buttigieg also made the case that Democrats need a nominee with long downballot coattails in order to reshape the judicial system. "If we can't change Congress, we're screwed," Buttigieg said. "We've got to do it with a big enough margin that it sends Trumpism into the history books."
-Elena Schneider
Source: https://www.politico.com/