fb-pixel

SALEM, CONCORD, and EXETER, N.H. — With the clock counting down to New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary next week, supporters of President Trump’s Democratic challengers knocked on tens of thousands of doors and placed countless phone calls over the weekend, trying to nail down votes before time runs out.

Most of the candidates were in Iowa, giving speeches and taking selfies with voters as they braced for primary season’s earliest contest on Monday, but two longshot contenders — former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick and US Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado — were in the Granite State speaking to voters directly, while campaign surrogates and volunteer canvassers for the other nine Democrats tried to close the deal.

Advertisement



Speaking inside Exeter Town Hall Saturday to a crowd of about 150 — including former Massachusetts lieutenant governor Tim Murray and former US congressman Michael Capuano, who are both supporting his candidacy — Patrick called for “meaningful, lasting change” in the nation’s government amid a planned six-day swing through the state.

“We all know that this president is unfit and unkind,” Patrick said of Trump. “We are embarrassed, ashamed, and angry, outraged day after day. How many of us have asked ourselves, ‘How can it be even worse?’ And then the next day, next hour, it’s even worse.”

Deval Patrick spoke to the audience at a town hall stop in Exeter, N.H.
Deval Patrick spoke to the audience at a town hall stop in Exeter, N.H.Blake Nissen/The Boston Globe

Randi Guscott, 22, of Milton, Mass., asked Patrick about his policy regarding prison reform and was impressed with his answer, which included ending mandatory minimum sentences, beefing up reentry programs, restoring voting rights to the formerly incarcerated, and legalizing marijuana nationally.

“He touched all the points that I wanted to hear — even some new ones that I hadn’t heard of,” Guscott said.

Capuano said Patrick is working to overcome the hurdle of his late entry into the race. “He’s a great candidate, but if he can be heard, I think he can be a very successful candidate.”

Advertisement



Patrick field organizer Beryl Emmerich told the crowd the campaign had contacted every New Hampshire voter it had targeted, but there were still many follow-up calls and visits to be made. “We need to contact all of those people again over the next 10 days, and we need your help to do it,” she told supporters.

Elsewhere across New Hampshire, from the Massachusetts border to the North Country, supporters for other candidates were singing their praises.

Novelist Joyce Maynard hosted meet-and-greets supporting Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar in Concord and Merrimack, while Klobuchar supporters knocked on doors in about a dozen communities, from Nashua to Berlin. Congresswoman Annie Kuster and former undersecretary of the US Army Patrick Murphy stumped for former South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg in Nashua and Keene, while congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter and Senator Bill Bradley asked voters to support Biden at events around the state.

Speaking in Keene, Kuster compared Buttigieg to former president Barack Obama, whom she also backed early in his presidential run.

“Same story: He’s too young, it’s not his turn, and by the way, I can’t say his name," she told the crowd. "So we’ve been here before, and we were successful that time.”

Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Medford, Mass., native, did not file for the New Hampshire primary and is not campaigning in the state. He was in Denver Saturday opening a campaign office.

Advertisement



In Salem, N.H., on Saturday, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey rallied Senator Elizabeth Warren supporters, who participated in nearly 300canvasses around the state over the weekend, telling them the Cambridge Democrat has her eye on the issues affecting American families.

“She’s going to fight to reduce the cost of prescription drugs," Healey said. "She’s going to fight to make health care more affordable and accessible to people. She’s going to take on the issue of student debt. . . . She knows where she’s from. She knows who she stands for. She knows who it’s important to stand up to.”

Shailini Sisodia, 61, of Lexington, Mass., who spent Saturday morning door-knocking for Warren, said she encountered “mixed reactions."

“Some people overtly said, ‘We’re Trump people.’ — They were nice about it,” Sisodia said. "Some people are very much Warren; some people are on the fence. We got a whole range of reactions.”

Kit Cali, 28, of Cambridge, Mass., was among a group from the Boston chapter of Democratic Socialists of America who took a campaign bus from Alewife to Concord, N.H., to knock on doors for Sanders.

Bernie Sanders supporter Kit Cali was in Concord, N.H., to canvas for the presidential candidate.
Bernie Sanders supporter Kit Cali was in Concord, N.H., to canvas for the presidential candidate.Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe

Cali, who was canvassing for the first time, said she has met some voters who lean toward former vice president Joe Biden because of his perceived electability, though polls have shown Sanders doing about as well as Biden in a head-to-head matchup with Trump. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday showed Biden beating Trump 50 percent to 44 percent among registered voters, while Sanders bested Trump by 49 percent to 45 percent.

Advertisement



In 2016, Cali said, Trump showed that a candidate with policies far right of center could win the presidency, and she thinks 2020 could be the year for a candidate who’s left of center.

“So many of the people in my generation, in particular, grew up into this environment of Occupy Wall Street, of Black Lives Matter, now #MeToo,” Cali said. “I don’t think there’s a sense that the old order was serving anyone.”




Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeremycfox.