Biden is skipping New Hampshire’s primary. One of his opponents says he’s as elusive as Bigfoot

PETERBOROUGH, NH — In an effort to upset President Joe Biden during the New Hampshire primary, Democratic challenger Dean Phillips is running a TV ad across the state comparing him to Bigfoot — the argument being that both are hard to find.

“I’m some kind of expert on elusive creatures,” he says on the spot. “So I challenged myself to find President Biden in New Hampshire during this primary season. I thought I was good at hiding.”

Biden is not campaigning here. He pushed Democratic rule changes that prioritized voters of color, while de-emphasizing the New Hampshire primary. That angered party officials here, who went ahead with a primary anyway.

With his name off the ballot, Biden’s allies are waging a write-in campaign to try to ensure he doesn’t lose — or come uncomfortably close to losing — to any of the nearly two dozen candidates actually on the ballot. – a colorful collection including a hopeful whose first name is president and a performance artist who wears a rubber boot on his head.

While Tuesday’s vote won’t impact the numbers in the Democratic nomination battle, it does pose risks for an incumbent president with low approval ratings and nagging concerns within his party about his reelection prospects. Biden’s challengers also include Phillips, a Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota, and self-help author Marianne Williamson, and both raise questions about Biden’s age and electability that his team would prefer to avoid.

Anything less than a strong finish for the president could hurt, further fueling concerns about his chances in November in a likely rematch with former President Donald Trump. But Biden supporters in New Hampshire are backing his campaign’s arguments that he must be re-elected to thwart the serious threat Trump poses to the country’s core values.

“There is certainly some frustration and disappointment with how this has turned out, but I trust Granite Staters will be able to look at the bigger picture and realize the stakes of this election,” said Angela Brennan, a representative of the first term in New Hampshire supporting the writing. -in-campaign. “This is really a choice between democracy and dictatorship.”

Phillips may be Biden’s most prominent challenger in New Hampshire, though he has revamped his message in recent months and drawn sharp criticism from his colleagues in Congress.

His campaign often had a bumpy ride. No voters showed up at a recent event he organized, leaving him deadpanned at reporters: “If you build it, sometimes they don’t come.”

On Thursday, Phillips received the endorsement of entrepreneur Andrew Yang, who attracted national attention with a long-shot Democratic bid in 2020. As Yang declared his support for Phillips at a rally in Dartmouth, organizers blared walk-up music and the congressman stormed into the room . room cheering into his own handheld microphone.

Only Yang hadn’t finished his speech yet. “No, no, no,” he shouted. “I have more time here.”

“Oh,” Phillips replied, finally walking back down the hall. “Hello everyone!”

But he and others made it through the New Hampshire winter. Earlier this week, Phillips stood in stocking feet in the kitchen of a state lawmaker. It had snowed heavily the day before and about 15 attendees were asked to leave their muddy shoes at the door.

That kind of personal access is appreciated by people here who cherish their state’s first primaries.

“We’re going to show them that it’s not just the polls, it’s the voters saying, ‘It’s time to move on,’” Phillips said of his chances of upsetting New Hampshire. He calls Biden ‘a good man’, who will nevertheless lose to Trump if he does not resign.

His host that evening was Peter Leishman, a 66-year-old representative from Peterborough who works in the railroad industry and supported Biden’s three previous runs for the White House, in 1988, 2008, and during his victory over Trump.

“It’s time for change,” Leishman said.

The White House and Biden’s reelection campaign generally do not comment on Phillips, other than to say his near-uniform voting record supports the president’s legislative priorities. But New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley, who once warned that the new calendar meant a major Democratic challenger could embarrass Biden, now says his write-in campaign should easily prevail.

People vote on important issues like abortion, not on a party delegate rule, he said.

“It doesn’t seem to have any impact at all,” Buckley said.

Also self-help author Williamson, another 2020 contender, recently told an audience in Portsmouth: “Even if the Democratic Party can take away delegates from me or any other candidate, they can’t. take away the significance of the New Hampshire primary.

Phillips has spent nearly $2.5 million on television and digital ads in New Hampshire, according to media tracking firm AdImpact. According to AdImpact, the Bigfoot-style spot has racked up nearly 4 million impressions on TV and online.

The Biden entry has just one paid staffer and no official support from the president’s re-election campaign. Relying on volunteers and operating out of an office loaned by the AFL-CIO, it spreads the message mainly by attending Democratic rallies around the state and hosting house parties while producing thousands of yard signs, as well as portable signs, it hopes. Supporters hoist at every polling station on Tuesday.

A super PAC called Granite for America is also sending mail to Democrats in New Hampshire with three-step instructions on how to cast a mail-in ballot, trumpeting Biden’s promises to protect Social Security and abortion rights while blasting Trump prevented from returning to the White House. House.

It is not clear how much is being spent on this, but it appears to be substantial. One Democratic voter received five mailers from the super PAC in two days this week, and one of the group’s leaders, Kathy Sullivan, former chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, said she received a call from a woman who said: ‘I have had seven mailings and I am going to vote for him. You can stop sending it.

Sullivan promised there would be only one more.

“I’m very happy with what we’ve done and I hope it works, but because this is New Hampshire, we won’t know until after the election,” she said with a laugh. What would a Biden victory be? “I don’t have a number in mind, I don’t have a percentage in mind.”

Ellen Lavoie Cooke, a 65-year-old Democrat from Dover, said she plans to write in Biden’s name: “I am not ashamed to be an American as I was when his predecessor was in power.”

Yet Desmond Kager, a 24-year-old technical consultant from Plymouth, is a Democrat who does not support Trump but noted of Biden: “I probably won’t vote for him because of the write-in.”

“If the Republicans or Democrats can put someone on the ticket who is actually worth voting for, then I will vote for them,” he said. “But the last few elections have been difficult.”

Write-in organizers are trying to manage expectations, noting that undeclared voters in New Hampshire can participate in either party’s primary. That means Biden supporters could vote in the Republican primary, where Trump and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley are locked in a fiercer and more high-profile battle for the state’s Republican delegates.

Tracy Moloney, 63, administrator of the math department at Dartmouth College, came to hear Phillips speak with Yang at the event and plans to vote for him — though she said she would ultimately vote for Biden in November if he is the nominee.

“I don’t know how he does that,” Moloney said of Phillips beating Trump. “But I don’t know how Biden is doing it either. That should scare everyone.”

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Associated Press video journalist Rodrique Ngowi contributed to this report from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.