The NPR Politics Podcast - On the Ground In New Hampshire

Episode Date: February 10, 2020

In this special episode of The NPR Politics Podcast, Asma Khalid travels to candidate events around the state of New Hampshire and speaks with reporters from NPR and New Hampshire Public Radio about the themes of the race days before the first-in-the-nation primary.This episode: NPR correspondents Asma Khalid, Scott Detrow, and Mara Liasson; New Hampshire Public Radio reporters Lauren Choolijian, Sarah Gibson, and Casey McDermott. Connect:Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.Email the show at [e-mail] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Find and support your local public radio station.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

You guys didn't dress up for the dinner. I thought I actually got to go to the arena. I know, but guys, that's why New Hampshire didn't create dinner. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Asma Khalid. Tomorrow, folks in New Hampshire will vote in the nation's first primary. And after the mayhem in the Iowa caucuses, what happens in New Hampshire could be more important than ever. So over the weekend, I hit the campaign trail in a whirlwind 36-hour sprint to bring you this episode. Our first stop was Saturday night. New Hampshire Democrats hosted a massive dinner party in an arena in downtown Manchester. It was a chance for superfans to show off how pumped they

were about their candidates. And with all the candidates getting some time to give their spiel on stage, it was also a last chance for them to maybe persuade some persuadable people. When I got there, Mara Liason, our national political correspondent, was already perched in the front row of the press section. Hey there, Mara. Hey. Good, hi. You made it. Yeah, I made it.

How was your flight? No trouble. It, I made it. How was your flight? No trouble. It was uneventful. As soon as we pulled out the mics, she launched into her theory of what this primary could mean. I do think what you're starting to see are the classic split between the two wings of the Democratic Party, the left, represented by Bernie Sanders, and the center-left, in this case, case out of Iowa represented by Pete Buttigieg. The question for me is, there are still some other centrist candidates, center-left candidates in the race. Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar. Do they coalesce around one alternative to Bernie Sanders or not?

But Mara, are you suggesting then that if moderates in the Democratic Party don't really agree upon who their chosen candidate is, that someone like Bernie Sanders can keep winning a plurality of the vote in these primaries and come out to be the nominee then? That's possible. We don't know what's going to happen after the first four contests because there's Mike Bloomberg and his gigantic wallet waiting in the wings. But Bernie Sanders is the most ideologically defined candidate I have ever seen run for president. He's been saying the same things for 40 years. He is a candidate of the old left, not even the new left. And he is very, very defined. So we're here in New Hampshire. And, you know, I think a lot of folks see Iowa as maybe not being predictive of what's going to happen here. I've certainly heard

that from New Hampshire voters who told me flat out, you know, we make up our own mind and they're very proud of that independent spirit. But there's a certain level of momentum that a candidate gets when they come here to New Hampshire. And that momentum at this point is not with Joe Biden, who many folks saw as that certainly not. It's not with Joe Biden. It was with Buttigieg and Sanders. So the question is, who got more of it? Don't forget, Bernie Sanders has a huge act to follow. And guess what? It's his own. Because in 2016, he beat Hillary Clinton after pretty much tying her in Iowa, just like he did with Pete Buttigieg.

He beat her by curvature of the earth here in New Hampshire by something like 20 plus points. He is not going to do that this time. So it's a slog. It's a delegate race. It's not like he comes shot out of a cannon here as a big winner. You've got the majority of Democratic votes are still on the center left side. But the question is, will they coalesce around one alternative to him?

So Mara, that takes us to where the state of the race is tonight, where we are inside of an arena and a whole bunch of candidates are going to take the stage. That's right. This is a place where the candidates usually have a dinner a couple days before the primary and everyone is here with their cheering section. Some of them have neon lights. Some of them have funny chants, but they're all here. So I've got a question for you. Are you ready to hear from the next president of the United States? For Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg,

the New Hampshire primary is about maintaining that momentum that they picked up after strong finishes in Iowa. My belief in this America is not the product of my age. It's the product of my experience. Now is the time for us to come together to end the divisiveness, the racism, the lying, the homophobia, the xenophobia, the religious bigotry of the Trump administration. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden seem less formidable than they once did. They're trying to prove that they can bring together the party under a unifying message. The character of this country is on the ballot. We must defeat Donald Trump. There is no choice. We can build an America with a democracy where people, not money, are the most important things. And for others, like Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and entrepreneur Andrew Yang,

New Hampshire might be the last chance to break through. The heart of America is bigger than the heart of the guy in the White House. Let's make America think harder and move this country forward on Tuesday. Today on the podcast, we're going to take you on the road with us in New Hampshire, just right after this break. Why is it so hard to make new habits? Are pets really that great for us? Why can't I remember where I put my keys? Would you rather be given an award or a bonus?

Answers to these questions and more, every week on Hidden Brain from NPR. And we're back. We're ready, guys. Let's do it. So, Sunday morning, I drove with our producer, Barton Girdwood, and our editor, Eric McDaniel, to Nashua, New Hampshire. It's just right near the border with Massachusetts. We wanted to see the four candidates who came out on top in Iowa. I opted for the snow boots today.

I know there's not as much snow, but I feel like we're going to be doing a lot of walking, you know. Our first stop was former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Maybe that's the media entrance. It's where we met up with New Hampshire Public Radio's Lauren Chooljian. Hey there, how's it going? Oh my gosh, how are you? I am like really struck by how long that line is. Did you see the end?

Oh, it's all the way back there. Like I parked at a bank up the street. Like I took a video over at the end of it. So this is, like, the other side of the building. And I was like, oh, wow, this is a long line. And then I kept walking, and I was like, oh, wow, this line keeps going. Yeah. I talked to some guy right, you know, kind of around the bend here,

and he said he'd been waiting for 40 minutes. Yeah, one of the volunteers out front told me that they started lining up at 9.30. It's not warm out. I mean, I'm really interested to see that given the fact that he essentially tied for first place in the Iowa caucuses, how if at all that momentum has changed his path here in New Hampshire. Do you feel like you're seeing a different trajectory? I mean I think this line is, I wouldn't want to say all because of that because I certainly think like it's Sunday, people wouldn't want to say all because of that, because I certainly think, like, it's Sunday,

people finally have time to get out and see people. However, you know, I have talked to people, like I talked to a guy at a veterans event a couple days ago for Buttigieg. He was like, the news in Iowa, even though it was like split and a slow roll, he felt like that gave him a little bit more strength. Like, okay, this is a guy who actually can win some things. So I do think that that... It's bolstering his electability case here in New Hampshire.

Because here's the thing. Anytime I talk to a voter here, the first thing they say to me is, I just want someone who beats Donald Trump. I'm like, okay, what are your top issues? They're like, well, of course, climate change, health care, but I really want someone that beats Donald Trump. And so I think as much as the saying goes that New Hampshire is independent, doesn't care about what Iowa says, I actually think like there is some momentum out of the

results from the other day. Meaning that like you would not have seen you feel a line that wrapped around this elementary school, perhaps a couple of weeks ago. I think that's fair. Let's remember that we're facing the most divisive president of our time, which is why we can't risk dividing Americans further. The idea that you've either got to be for a revolution or you've got to be for the status quo leaves most of us out. We need a politics that brings all of us in because all of us need a new and better president.

So Lauren, I'm curious if you have a clear sense of who Pete Buttigieg's voter in New Hampshire is. So I'm still trying to shake that out, but I will say he does trend older. He's doing really well with the older population of New Hampshire. Asma, you know from your time reporting in Boston, New Hampshire is an aging state, so there's certainly a lot of older people here. I think it's also kind of what we talk about a lot with this race. People who are looking for a moderate or so-called moderate option. Somebody who they think is going to be able to bridge and reach out to people who may be voted for Donald Trump and are looking for an alternative. But as we've discussed, like I don't know how many of those people are out there. Lauren, one of the things that I think was an assumption very early on in this election cycle was that Elizabeth Warren,

senator from the neighboring state of Massachusetts, would do pretty well here in New Hampshire. And, you know, who knows how she'll do, but polls are indicating that, you know, her fortunes have dipped as Buttigieg's have risen. And do you see kind of any connection between where his support has come from and where her support has dipped? Well, I will certainly say that I, too, am kind of surprised. I mean, she's very beloved around New England. We saw at the dinner last night, had the roaring support from the crowd when she came out. But I'm also not sure if those were all New Hampshire voters, right? And I think this idea that, you know, Pete Buttigieg is a new person on the scene. I've had a couple people tell me they really like that about him. I've also had a couple people tell

me they like that this, there was a quote, absence of anger, one voter brought this up to me, that he sounds to them like more of a uniter. The crazy thing about that is, though, is there's a completely other wing of the party, and a lot of them are here. We have a very strong activist community in New Hampshire who are like, wait a second, I want someone who's going to pick fights for me. I want someone who's angry. So I think this is why I'm so curious to see what happens on Tuesday, because that split is so pronounced here in New Hampshire. And so it's going to be fascinating to see how it shakes out. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren wasn't too far away in Concord. No. I bet it's in this building here because that looks like a gym.

And that's where we caught up with New Hampshire Public Radio's Sarah Gibson. So are we in a middle school again? We sure are. Okay, yeah. It's like this looks like a middle school. Elementary school last time, yes. Now we're in a middle school. But we're in a school, which is where a lot of campaign events tend to be.

And, you know, Sarah, I want to just kind of begin by asking you, if you feel like you have seen any change in what a Warren campaign event feels like now, you know, where the weekend before the primaries, compared to what Warren events might have felt like earlier on in this cycle, have you just noticed a change at all? Yeah, well, I think the messaging has changed quite notably, actually. So in the summertime, there was a ton of energy, as you may recall. We were really seeing Warren enthusiasm surge here here and the town halls were really excited.

But she was doing a lot of just introducing herself and then talking about her policy issues. Now, post-Iowa, she is pitching herself as the unity candidate. I have heard that a lot. And I've noticed that even on the debate stage. For sure. So central to the unity message is really pounding home the anti-corruption plan that is central to all of her policies. And one that she says disaffected Republicans and independents and all those undecided voters in New Hampshire can get behind. So we're hearing a lot about both the anti-corruption platform and just generally her being able to pull from different parts of the Democratic Party that we're seeing so divided in, you know, on the debate stage and also just in talking to voters

here. And I'm really interested too, and I don't know that we'll have a clear sense of this until we actually see the results on Tuesday, of how much space there is for a candidate to find a lane between, say, the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party and the Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden wing of the party. I mean, that was the lane that someone like Kamala Harris was trying to find. And there wasn't a lot of space for a candidate in that lane. Yeah. And, you know, it's funny that you mentioned Harris because a couple of times now she's actually said, like, I'm pulling support from the former Harris supporters. I have Castro folks on board. I have O'Rourke folks on board. I have Booker folks on board. I have O'Rourke folks on board. I have Booker folks on board. You know, I think some people would say, well, those people were not polling well

here in New Hampshire before they dropped out. But she certainly is mentioning those other candidates as a way to say, I'm pulling ideas and enthusiasm from the campaigns that we no longer see here in New Hampshire. Because if we can disrupt the influence of money, if we can just knock it back, we don't have to eliminate it 100%, just knock it back, get off our back foot and get on our front foot, then we can build a very different America. We can build an America of opportunity, not just for those born into privilege. We can build an America of opportunity for every single human being in this country. That's why I'm in this fight. Sarah, listening to Elizabeth Warren, the weekend, the final weekend of campaigning before the New Hampshire primary,

I am struck by how similar her closing argument feels to her opening argument. I mean, I was with her the day she announced I was with her on her first trip through Iowa. And she's, you know, kind of offering voters a biographical introduction to herself still. And it's really different than what I am hearing from some of the other candidates. It was the stump speech. I mean, we were an hour in and she was still taking more questions about like contract labor and details of her plan. And a lot of people in there are here in part to canvas like they know, right? They very much know her. They're super fans. And they're ready to just get out and canvas. I will say I did meet some undecided voters who are there to check out Elizabeth Warren. But even they told me I still really like her, but I'm kind of surprised I'm standing here an hour later.

So I think it's certainly a departure from what other candidates are doing. And so we set off to see how much a departure Warren's message was in comparison to other candidates. Next up, former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders after a quick break. I listen to Bullseye because Jesse always has really good questions. What did John Malkovich wear when he was 20? I don't know how to describe it. Bullseye interviews with creators you love and creators you need to know from MaximumFun.org and NPR. And we're back. Former Vice President Joe Biden has also centered his campaign on a kind of unity.

But after a poor fourth place finish in Iowa, he's adopted a more aggressive tone, singling out some of the Democratic rivals by name. When we made it to his rally in Hudson, it was also in a school gym, and he was delivering essentially the same message he's been offering for a while. He tried to emphasize that a vote for him was a vote for the character of the nation. Folks, there's so much wrong that's so easy to fix. You in New Hampshire, you know one another. You can feel the pain in your next door neighbor. You know it's happening sometimes. And you reach out. You're not distant. Well, folks, this election, America's character is on the ballot.

The character of the people running is on the ballot. The character of the people running is on the ballot. And folks, we've got to take this country back in a bad, bad way. Casey McDermott of New Hampshire Public Radio was also at the rally. We spoke out in the hallway next to a pretty impressive case of school sports trophies. Do you have a sense that Joe Biden, who came into this race as the presumptive frontrunner, I should say, right? I mean, he does really well in national polls and he's just a known commodity. He was the former vice president. Do you feel like him finishing in fourth place in Iowa has had a ripple down effect, positively or negatively here in New Hampshire. I

mean, I know that New Hampshire has pride themselves on being independent. And they tell me that what happens in Iowa doesn't matter here. But does, is that true? It does seem like some of the people I've talked to, and this is by no means a scientific kind of poll, but some of the people I've talked to have said that they are looking at, you know, people like Senator Klobuchar, people like Mayor Buttigieg, or some of the other candidates, where they may have, you know, had their eyes on the former vice president had he finished kind of closer to the top in Iowa. I think it's going to be, you know, interesting to see, regardless of where he comes out on Tuesday, how the campaign kind of spins that. I think one of the things that they have been very careful about talking about is

their long game. And I think they're also mindful of the voter demographics of Iowa and New Hampshire. Can you spell that out for folks? Yes. So Iowa and New Hampshire are two of the whitest states in the nation. And the former vice president does enjoy some of the strongest support among the African-American community at large. So I think they're, you know, if they don't come out on top or near the top in Iowa and New Hampshire, I could definitely see a scenario. And I think they're starting to kind of lay the groundwork for this, where they say, well, we're really moving on to South Carolina. We're moving on to the rest of the nation where, you know, we may be able to connect more broadly than they were able to here in New Hampshire or Iowa. One person who is hoping to connect right here in New Hampshire, though,

is Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar. She only got one delegate in Iowa. Now she seems to be trending upward in the polls, in fundraising, and in crowd size. And it's not out of the question that she finishes above Joe Biden tomorrow. We found out her rally that day brought in over a thousand people. The Sanders rally, though, ended up being the biggest event of the season to date. Almost 2,000 people. That was a bit of a treacherous drive. It was. It's snowing quite a bit, you know. Say this is someone who formerly lived in New England, though. It was quite a drive. But we have made it to the campus of Keene State College here in Keene. Let's see if we can find Scott Detrow.

We are in Keene, New Hampshire, and this is about a 2,000-person rally at the end of the night for Bernie Sanders. He's been drawing big crowds throughout the last few days. I've been going to every single stop. He's been doing a mix of big rallies, kind of town hall events, and much smaller crowds where he revs up his volunteers who are going out to knock on doors. The Sanders campaign is really big on door knocking. Obviously, everybody is, but they really prioritize those metrics. They're talking about the fact that they knocked on 150,000 doors yesterday alone,

and they're going to keep doing that with this huge volunteer army, many of which came from out of state. And back in Iowa, we saw people flying out from other countries to come knock on doors for Bernie Sanders. Is it acceptable that the top 1% own more wealth than the bottom 92%? Is it acceptable that when in Vermont and in New Hampshire and around this country, we got people working two or three jobs to provide for their families, 49% of all new income goes to the top 1%. And that is why what we have got to do is create a government and an economy that works for all of us, not just wealthy campaign

contributors. So Scott, that was a wrap for Bernie Sanders. I mean, he's had a pretty busy day of campaigning and it seems like he's got a lot of momentum when you just look at the sheer number of people showing up at his events, the energy and the crowds. I mean, do you feel like there are some obstacles, if there are obstacles for him here in New Hampshire? I think there aren't actually that many compared to a lot of the other candidates, and that has less to do with all this enthusiasm and more to do with the fact that Joe Biden decided to engage in the Democratic primary for the first time, but to focus his fire on Pete Buttigieg. Pete Buttigieg has been criticizing Sanders a little bit, but mostly focused on Biden.

It seems like there is this kind of traffic jam among the more moderate candidates trying to make their pitch to independents, to moderate or centrist voters, whereas no one is really challenging Bernie Sanders for this big chunk of voters. So I think whether or not he comes in first, he's going to get a sizable chunk of the vote. And so if you're saying that Bernie Sanders has one lane, then presumably the other lane is this kind of muddled, moderate candidate lane. And what's so fascinating to me is because the Iowa caucuses were, I would say, to put it mildly, kind of a mess in terms of the results. It feels like a lot of candidates are level setting again in New Hampshire. And it seems like a lot of them are saying like, hey, I could come in third. I mean, they're not exactly saying this, but this is us interpretation. They're saying I could come in third. I could come in fourth. I could sort of come in this place. I mean, and I could still have a path

forward. And I wonder, like, how many states can a candidate come in third place, hypothetically, for and still have a path forward? Here's the thing we need to remember about the calendar. There is not much space left on the runway for finishes that put you in the conversation as opposed to winning. Because remember, we've got Nevada in a week and a half. We've got South Carolina the week after that. Then we're done with the four traditional early states. But then guess what? It is a national election just a few days later. March 3rd, contests all over the place.

You need to be doing more than just having a strong fourth place finish at that point. You need to have the investment. You need to have the organization in California, in Colorado, in Virginia, all over the map. And right now, there still aren't that many campaigns who have that in place. Tomorrow, New Hampshire will vote, and we'll be there late tomorrow night to break down the results. This podcast is produced by Barton Girdwood and Chloe Weiner. Our editor is Eric McDaniel. I'm Asma Khalid, and thank you, as always, for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.