The Biden-Harris campaign has released a new list of “prominent voices” supporting the 80-year-old president’s re-election bid, and the names that are missing are as “prominent” as those included:
Nobody from New Hampshire.
“Biden-Harris 2024 Announces Campaign National Advisory Board” is the announcement’s headline. “50 Prominent Voices from Across the Democratic Party Will Take a Leadership Role in Delivering the Campaign’s Message and Engaging Voters Across the Country.”
Among the names on the list:
- Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
- Mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass (D-Calif.)
- U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.)
- Gov. Maura Healey, (D-Mass.)
- State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D-Penn.)
Not on the list:
- Sen. Maggie Hassan
- Sen. Jeanne Shaheen
- Rep. Chris Pappas
- Rep. Annie Kuster
- Mayor Joyce Craig
- NH Democratic Chair Ray Buckley
While President Joe Biden handily won the Granite State in 2020, not a single New Hampshire Democrat is on the “Advisory Board.”
Why?
Multiple requests for comment to leading Democrats, including Buckley and the federal delegation, went unanswered.
But New Hampshire Republican Party chairman Chris Ager thinks he knows why.
“President Biden has abandoned New Hampshire, and our federal delegation is impotent,” he told NHJournal.
Biden’s travails in the First in the Nation primary state are well known. He has never won the Granite State in a presidential primary and came in an embarrassing fifth place — 8.4 percent of the vote, behind Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg in the 2020 contest.
Interestingly, Buckley, State Sen. Minority Leader Donna Soucy, and veteran state Sen. Lou D’Allesandro were all on the front row of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s appearance at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics in March.
While Granite State Democrats have groused about Biden’s decision to strip New Hampshire of its official place at the front of the primary-calendar line, the delegation has yet to take any significant actions to show their disapproval. They have all voted with Biden and against popular bipartisan bills opposing ESG investing rules and overriding Biden’s protections for Chinese-based solar energy companies.
Biden has pledged not to appear on the New Hampshire Democratic primary ballot or to campaign in the Granite State until after the primaries are over. But leaving prominent national voices from the first primary state off his campaign leadership list is a new low in the opinion of some local political insiders.
“Holy s**t,” a longtime New Hampshire political operative said when shown the list. “Yes, that’s a problem.”
Former U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg sees a potential silver lining in the Biden campaign’s treatment of New Hampshire Democrats.
“No one who is going to be 82 if elected and 86 if he or she serves his or her full term should be president,” Gregg said. “Hopefully, the Democratic Party members in New Hampshire will make this point when they vote in our First in the Nation primary.”
