When news broke that the Biden for New Hampshire campaign had canceled a Thursday morning event at the state Legislative Office Building (LOB) in Concord, Republican gubernatorial candidate Chuck Morse and his campaign sprang into action. They booked the now-vacated space for a pro-Trump event of their own.
About two hours after NHJournal reported the cancellation of their LOB event, the Biden for NH campaign announced there would, in fact, be a press conference, now located at the state Democratic Party headquarters in Concord.
As a result, New Hampshire voters were treated to back-to-back campaign events that revealed the contrast in the current mood of the two parties and their confidence — or lack thereof — in their presidential nominees.
For example, the GOP event hosted by Morse was open to all press and featured a rowdy group of Republicans, several of whom are running for state and federal office. They all offered unapologetic endorsements of Donald Trump.
“I’ve never seen our party so unified,” said Morse, who was first elected to public office in 1998. “This party is waiting for the delegates to come back from the convention. They want to go out and hold signs. They want to knock on doors. They want to celebrate the fact that we have something to run on.
“And that’s Donald J. Trump.”
The Biden-Harris event, on the other hand, was only open to invited press. New Hampshire Public Radio was allowed to attend, along with a Democrat-funded site run by a former Democratic Party communications director.
A reporter from New Hampshire Journal was kicked out of the press conference by Biden for New Hampshire communications director Marisa Nahem.
There were just four Democrats at the Biden-Harris event: state Sens. Donna Soucy (D-Manchester) and David Watters (D-Dover), Rep. Luz Bay (D-Dover), and state Senate candidate Matt McLaughlin of Bedford.
Notably absent were any of the Democratic candidates for governor or Congress.
While the Republican event was dominated by pro-Trump rhetoric, the Democrats focused almost entirely on attacking the GOP ticket of Trump and U.S. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio). In particular, they attempted to link the GOP ticket to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a wish list generated by right-leaning think tanks and activists, but not endorsed by Trump or his campaign.
“Donald Trump’s extreme Project 2025 would ban abortion nationwide, cut Social Security and Medicare and virtually… give Trump unchecked power to pass his extreme agenda,” Soucy said.
Meanwhile, news reports continued to circulate that top Democratic leaders from U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to former President Barack Obama are pushing Biden to withdraw from the race. Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was reportedly circulating poll numbers showing Biden would lose in a landslide.
None of the Biden for New Hampshire speakers addressed the battle over Biden’s future inside their divided party until questioned by reporters.
Confronted with a new University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll showing a majority of Granite State Democrats (56 percent) believe Biden should drop out of the race, Watters dismissed “a lot of noise in the polls” and pledged his support for the 81-year-old incumbent.
“We’ve had a great leader in Joe Biden. And we need more Joe if we want to continue the growth of our economy and protect our freedoms,” Watters said.
“We’re going to fight, we’re going to fight to win, and Joe Biden is going to lead us in the direction of dominance.”
But when asked by NHJournal as he left the event if he believes Biden has the physical and mental stamina to serve another four and half years as commander in chief, Watters declined to answer.
As for replacing Biden on the ticket, Soucy made the ironic argument that abandoning the incumbent would be “disrespectful” to the state’s First in the Nation presidential primary — the same primary Biden tried to kill.
“Of course, it’s Joe Biden,” Soucy said. “Any thoughts of not having Joe Biden as our [nominee] is just disrespectful of the primary and disrespectful of New Hampshire’s steadfast support of the First in the Nation primary.”
(The Democratic National Committee stripped New Hampshire of its FITN primary at Biden’s orders, and the president refused to set foot in the state until the primary was over.)
Unburdened by internal conflict or media drama, New Hampshire Republicans were practically giddy as they celebrated their presidential ticket.
“I was critical of President Trump years ago,” said First Congressional District GOP candidate Chris Bright. “And I will tell you what: after watching that man take a shot to the head and within seconds stand up with the American flag behind him and have the presence of mind to look out at America and rally us, I would crawl across broken glass to vote for him.”
Second Congressional District candidate Bill Hamlen used the presser to praise Trump’s VP pick.
“Are you guys excited about JD Vance? I hear a lot of young people. They went through the pandemic and they’re angry. They’re looking for hope. The JD Vance pick isn’t about the next four years. It’s about the next 12 years. We need to show vision and leadership to young people so that we can give them the future they deserve.”
Terese Bastarache is a Republican running for Executive Council, as well as a nurse. She says she can see Biden’s decline.
“I see an individual who is clearly starting to have cognitive issues, even just putting his words together,” Bastarache said. “We’re seeing what we would call clinically ‘word salad,’ and just it’s very worrisome. It almost looks like abuse at this point to put him up on stage and put that much pressure on him.”
While the Biden for NH campaign was trying to rally support for their embattled candidate, none of the Democrats running for governor or Congress responded to NHJournal’s questions about their confidence in Biden’s ability to serve another four years as president.
