Bellwether Town’s Voters as Scattered as Dems across the Country

 

My hometown of Laconia is the bellwether for the whole Granite State. I asked my Democratic friends, family, and neighbors who they were supporting in the presidential primary. Their answers were as varied as the field and as scattered as most of the polling.

A condensed some of their answers into an Op-Ed for Morning Consult, which you can read HERE.

Here’s an excerpt:

Sen. Bernie Sanders from neighboring Vermont won 56.5 percent of the vote in Laconia in 2016. Today there is little visible evidence of that kind of overwhelming support. As New Hampshire Democratic National Committeewoman Kathy Sullivan has observed, at this time in the 2016 primary, Sanders was polling around 60 percent in the Granite State. Interestingly, his son Levi earned only 1.8 percent of the vote in his 2018 campaign for the Democratic nomination for Congress in New Hampshire’s 1st District in 2018.

And yet, the people I speak with who supported him last time remain fond of him and see him as the real deal. An army veteran friend and Laconia native still likes him and is deciding between him and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii). A recent college grad in town who backed him last time still supports him but laments the fact than none of the women candidates have taken hold.

This brings us to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). My in-laws are backing her (they are extremely committed to the cause of electing a woman president). They sometimes seem at least as driven by their distaste for Sanders as they do their admiration for Warren. I don’t know anyone else who publicly supports her. Essentially, there is no meaningful groundswell for Warren. One pal — a social justice warrior, to be sure — says she “sucks.” A solitary Warren sign adorns a yard on Pleasant Street, a long and prominent neighborhood leading into the center of town.

What about former Mayor Pete Buttigieg? A local doctor friend and his husband are backing him enthusiastically. They staffed his float in the Christmas parade, bearing the stinging cold to show their support for their guy. They aren’t alone in their enthusiasm, but the same-sex couple across the street has a Sanders sign on their lawn. Buttigieg has a relatively small army compared to insurgency candidacies of years past: Sanders, Trump, Buchanan. If lawn signs could vote, Mayor Peter would win the city. But not by much and it would be a low turnout election to be sure.

And what of former Vice President Joe Biden, whose polling strength has endured months longer than many predicted? The SJW friend again: “He sucks.” A lawyer who stopped speaking to Republican family members for a time after 2016: “Joe Biden isn’t going to be president.” You’d be hard-pressed to find a Biden lawn sign in town. I’m not sure he’s held any house parties within the City, as Warren and Pete have.