Armies of doorknockers are fanning out across the district, in Manchester, Portsmouth and the Lakes Region. Phones are blowing up with texted donation requests. Some of the candidates have been at it for more than a year.
And yet, voters in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District — spanning the eastern half of the state — don’t appear in a rush to make up their minds. Though polling has been scant, one recent survey found that half of voters in both the Republican and Democratic primaries for this seat remain undecided.
So, what gives?
Chalk that up partly to timing: It’s the height of summer, and voters are mostly focused elsewhere. But there are other factors at play, too, including the sheer number of candidates this year: seven Democrats and three Republicans.
NHPR recently hit the trail with the Democrats running in this race, to get a better sense of what voters may still be looking for — and what candidates are offering.
[Editor’s note: we highly recommend you listen to this story.]
Who has the answers?
Inside a crowded Manchester living room, Maura Sullivan is running through her stump speech. It’s a weeknight. A few people are holding beers.
“I think people are looking for change,” Sullivan, a Marine and Iraq war veteran, tells the crowd. “I haven't heard one person in 15 months saying, ‘Things are going great and we should just keep going.’ " The crowd laughs.
Sullivan ran for this same seat in 2018, finishing second to Chris Pappas in the Democratic primary.
Since then, she’s taken on a leadership post with the state’s Democratic Party, and, so far, she’s the top fundraiser in this year’s race.
In the crowd, Joshua Blanchard listens while holding a squirmy 8-month-old baby.
He works at a lumberyard and is one of those still-undecided voters. Understandably, he’s got a lot on his mind.
We've seen costs go up exponentially, especially adding members of the family,” says Blanchard. “And it's been tough just to make the everyday ends meet.”
He’s been frustrated with how both parties are responding to affordability concerns.
“I don't think I've seen the Democrats, and definitely not the Republicans, actually speak to that in a way that has answers,” he tells me.
Another voter at the Sullivan event, Anne Williams from Manchester, stood nearby in the crowded living room.
She says, like a lot of Democrats, she’s not exactly optimistic about much these days. She gets why some younger voters are rallying around far-left progressives.
“They are very hungry for radical change,” says Williams. “As an older person, I feel like, ‘yes, we need change, but it's going to have to come through moderate steps.’ We can't flip a switch. We're not New York City.”
Certainly not: What flies in Brooklyn may not fly in Portsmouth. That’s where I caught up with more voters, at a house party for another Democratic candidate in this race, Stefany Shaheen.
Shaheen is a former city councilor here, and the daughter of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
Her stump speech this night is heavy on health care, and what she sees as the corruption of the Trump administration.
But she also talks up affordability, in big sweeping terms.
“The next generation doesn't feel that the promise of this country is in reach, because they're trying to figure out how to get out of their parents' basement, how to keep their health care, how to afford rent, how to pay their student loan debt,” says Shaheen. “That’s what’s at stake in this election.”
Afterward, Peter Cass, who later tells me that he’s “been up to his eyeballs” in politics for most of his life, asks Shaheen where the policy differences are between her and Sullivan.
It’s a good question, one I suspect a lot of undecided voters are asking themselves right now.
For Cass, it's what’s holding him back from making up his mind about who to vote for: “I really don't know, and I probably won't know until I get in the voting booth. I really don't know.”
Democratic values at play
But the clock is ticking. Primary Day — September 8 — is now a month away. People like Cass are going to have to make their minds up soon.
And in a way, that’s fuel for all the candidates: The chance to surge late.
On the same night as the Shaheen house party, another candidate, Christian Urrutia, is across town working another Portsmouth backyard.
Stephanie Willett from Exeter, who admits that her frustration with the Trump administration has resulted in some “sh-t-posting online,” says she is now getting directly involved in political campaigns.
In Urrutia, she’s found her apparent dream candidate: “He's got the goods, obviously. Smart, a lawyer, military man.”
Uruttia is in the National Guard, and previously was an executive for AirBnB.
His politics run to the left of Sullivan's and Shaheen’s. During his stump speech, he called for the dismantling of ICE, and replacing it with “something that’s consistent with our values.”
“We're not going to go there and be like, ‘Hey, you guys got it kind of wrong. Like, be better now,’ ” he says to the audience. “This has been completely corrupted by this administration.”
Principles and politics
Backyard gatherings like this are one way candidates are trying to lock in support. Appearances at big public events are another.
Last Saturday, Rochester held its annual Pride celebration, and more than half the field showed up to work the scene.
“I’m running on principles,” says candidate Sarah Chadzynski, a non-profit executive who’s quick to talk about her New Hampshire experience. “Listen, we’re a hunting, Harley-riding Democratic family here that loves having our kids grow up here with bare feet out in the community.”
A short time later, another Democrat in the field arrives: Hampton Select Board Chair Carleigh Beriont. She's visiting the booths and vendors and seems at ease meeting with Pride revelers, but also just campaigning in general.
“I mean, this is amazing,” she says. “I get to go around and spend an entire year listening to the things that are keeping people up at night and driving them crazy, and then asking them if they want to be in a position to do something about it.”
Shaheen swings by the event, and then Heath Howard — at 26, the youngest candidate in the race — arrives. Howard is a state representative from Strafford, and has the backing of the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.
“Money is not necessarily the end-all-be-all in elections this cycle, and people are very clearly looking for something different, and not status quo, which the other candidates that are throwing money at this race can’t provide,” he says.
In this crowded race, each of the candidates does bring something different to the ballot.
They just now need to convince voters they’re the best choice.
