New Hampshire Campaign Diary
I visit a campaign event in New Hampshire. Links on political realignments, liberalism, and more…
Presidential campaigns are a grind. Especially when you’re the underdog. Tuesday afternoon, I went to witness the grind in a small reception hall on the edge of Manchester, New Hampshire. With backup from Governor Chris Sununu, Ron DeSantis was there to make his case to standing-room crowd of Granite State voters.
The crowd was a diverse range of ages, with multiple children in the audience. Next to me was family with a small baby. The background music—a combination of rock and country-rock—seemed edgier (harsher, even) than the crowd itself.
When Chris Sununu took to the stage to introduce DeSantis, it was immediately clear how he has been able to convince New Hampshire voters to split their tickets in cycle after cycle (sending Democrats to Washington and him to the state capitol). He has the affable energy of a skilled retail politician. Still weighing the alternatives to Donald Trump, the governor has not endorsed yet. He stressed that the Republican Party needs to “move on from chaos”—a clear dig at Trump—and said that DeSantis was “making a huge surge here.”
DeSantis had on his campaign uniform: jeans with a DeSantis-branded pullover. In his prepared remarks, his touched on some populist, anti-establishment themes: DC needs a “new sheriff” and the United States needs to avert “managed decline.” The words of this stump-speech were well-worn and his delivery was practiced. A certain suspense attends to Trump’s campaign speeches; especially these days, you never know quite what he will say. That’s not DeSantis’s style—he’s disciplined, measured, level.
Part of the—sometimes bizarre—energy of the New Hampshire primary comes from the popularity of the town hall format. These are not the managed “town halls” of cable news, where producers carefully select the questions that will be asked. In New Hampshire, the hand goes up and the candidate waits for whatever question comes his or her way. This process can have some twists. One voter asked DeSantis to call out Joe Biden for not supplying Secret Service protection to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.—and then he asked about DeSantis’s position on a central-bank digital currency. In one of his biggest applause lines, DeSantis said he opposes such measures. (I guess currency is still a highly charged topic in American politics, after all.)
On the whole, the town hall participants seemed more serious about policy than most news coverage of presidential politics is. There were very few horserace questions. Instead, the questions were about the issues: how to handle antisemitism, what executive actions DeSantis would take on his first day, and what to do for small businesses.
This town hall revealed a bigger shift in Republican thinking about policy. When DeSantis said he was in favor of “decoupling” from the People’s Republic of China, a voter pressed him to explain how the U.S. should deal with semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. DeSantis seemed to favor not just “friend-shoring” (that is, bringing supply chains to allied nations) but the migration of critical supply chains back to U.S. soil—a project that might involve (in his words) the use of regulatory and tax incentives.
DeSantis also brought up some less-mentioned parts of his record as governor: boosting teacher pay and exempting baby-related goods such as diapers from the state sales tax. Culture-war issues might not play as well in New Hampshire as bread-and-butter ones. (After the event, someone connected to New Hampshire Republican politics told me that young working families could be an important bloc for DeSantis.)
But, yes, there were some horserace parts, too. DeSantis raised both policy and political charges against Trump. He said that Trump was the “best turnout machine for Democrats” because of his polarizing personality. Throughout the town hall, DeSantis pitted himself against Trump’s erratic behavior as president. He said that he wouldn’t be tweeting at three in the morning—which got a laugh from the audience. He emphasized his ability to deliver on his campaign promises and Trump’s failure to deliver on his own.
The last question from the town hall was “What can we do to make sure this is not a Trump-Biden rematch?” That’s a question asked in households across the United States, at least if polling can be believed. (DeSantis, of course, had an easy answer: “vote for me.”)
In my discussion with attendees, one thing that jumped out at me was that many people there had been Trump supporters—including in the 2016 primary. As one voter put it to me, Trump seemed a “breath of fresh air” back then. That anecdotally matches something seen among some prominent commentators and analysts: Many early adopters of populism and Trump (such as Ann Coulter) have found him a failed vehicle for political change and want the party to move on. One voter told me that she thought that Trump was in many ways a great president—but also that he was too “polarizing” to govern. If they weren’t committed to DeSantis, the voters I spoke to were considering both him and Haley.
After the questions, then the handshakes and the small talk and the press gaggle and the breakdown to do it all over again later that day (in up north in Keene). That’s the grind. There’s something hard about it—the pitiless succession of diners and gymnasiums. But there’s also something gloriously democratic about it, too. It demands that those who aspire for power pay some tribute to the people.
(Quick tip in parting for those readers either covering the campaign trail in New Hampshire or working on it: Check out the Greek bakery Fournos right next to the Manchester airport. Great cookies!)
Links, etc.
I reviewed John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira’s new book, Where Have All the Democrats Gone?, for City Journal this week.
In their new book, the two veteran observers argue that Democrats’ embrace of neoliberal economic policies (characterized by financialization, globalization, and a market-oriented approach to public policy) and a divisive politics of identity have imperiled their standing with the working class. Two interrelated topics drive the narrative: the changing shape of the Democratic coalition, and the bigger transformation of American life during the neoliberal and, arguably, post-neoliberal periods.
Some other reviews: Pamela Paul in the New York Times…New York Magazine’s Eric Levitz argues that Democrats should not try to appeal to working-class voters through cultural moderation…Ryan Zickgraf in Compact…In the WSJ, Barton Swaim writes that thinks that Judis and Teixeira’s cultural diagnosis is “unassailably true”…for National Review, Reihan Salam says that the authors “suggest that populism, in some form or another, represents the path to electoral victory and that neither party is getting populism right” and wonders whether there’s a “traditional conservative” alternative.
Check the news stands: A new issue of American Affairs is out. The inaugural issue of The Vital Center is here, too.
Over at FUSION: David Azerrad on why the “new Right” isn’t radical and Andy Smarick on politics and service. (See also Joe Pitts on social capital.)
An EPPC policy brief on kid safety for smartphones and app stores by Clare Morell and Michael Toscano.
A provocation by Sam Hammond on AI and growth.
A fascinating conversation about liberalism between Samuel Moyn and Daniel McCarthy.
(ICYMI from me: Nikki Haley and managerial politics…the Republican play for cities…Joe Manchin’s Mountain State third way…)
OK, I have to make a pie and some cranberry sauce—happy Thanksgiving everyone!