Biden not on N.H. ballot, but his proxies are on the trail
‘This is their way of giving the Biden write-in a little bit of a nudge without explicitly supporting it.’ DANTE SCALA, professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire
BRENTWOOD, N.H. — President Biden couldn’t be bothered to campaign in New Hampshire ahead of the state’s Jan. 23 presidential primary. But his cabinet officials have made plenty of time to drop in and tout his administration’s accomplishments.
Call it the shadow Biden primary campaign. At least 12 senior Biden administration officials, including a majority of his cabinet members, paid visits to New Hampshire in December and January. They came on official business, so the Hatch Act prohibited them from talking about the political campaign. But their mission was clear: to speak in glowing terms about what the administration has delivered to New Hampshire voters.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — who finished second in New Hampshire’s 2020 Democratic presidential primary — downplayed the state’s significance and the timing of his visit when he came Jan. 12 to celebrate the benefits of a sweeping infrastructure law.
“This is not my first visit to New Hampshire,” Buttigieg said, when asked about the timing of his junket, noting he’s been to “almost every state in the union now: red, blue, and purple.”
He donned a pair of safety goggles as a tradesman here in Brentwood showed him how to cut a piece of glass by hand during a tour of a union training facility. Buttigieg said he’s trying to highlight how infrastructure projects are benefiting people, since long-term projects aren’t immediately tangible the way a tax credit is, for example. (That’s a challenge Biden is facing as he makes the case for his reelection.)
Biden’s name won’t appear on the Democratic ballot for New Hampshire’s primary, after he urged the Democratic National Committee to recognize South Carolina’s primary as first in the 2024 lineup. But the DNC’s threat of sanctions didn’t deter New Hampshire from holding its traditional primary first anyway. So now Biden is skipping New Hampshire’s primary entirely.
Or is he? Supporters here launched a write-in campaign, an effort that has drawn support from high-profile Democrats including Massachusetts Gover
nor Maura Healey, who is — as it so happens — also an official super-surrogate for Biden’s reelection campaign. This weekend, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and California Congressman Ro Khanna of California — a progressive star who is playing an active surrogate role for Biden — will also headline events for the write-in effort.
Given the president’s conspicuous absence, some political observers said Biden’s cabinet officials seem to be serving as stand-ins while he snubs the state’s rogue Democratic contest.
“They sure look like proxies to me,” said Dante Scala, a professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire. “This is their way of giving the Biden write-in a little bit of a nudge without explicitly supporting it.”
Others were a bit more skeptical that the visits would make any difference. Anna Brown, executive director of the nonprofit Citizens Count, cited polling that suggests voters will pick their candidates based on high-level issues such as abortion, economic policy, and democracy.
“Based on that, I don’t think proxies coming and pointing out ‘Oh, look at this local project,’ I don’t think that will sway local voters,” she said.
New Hampshire GOP Chairman Chris Ager said the visits may still be in a legal “gray area.” But the whole situation is “just wrong,” he said.
“It’s a veiled attempt to bypass the Hatch Act. Clearly they’re campaigning for President Biden and his write-in effort,” he said. “It’s hypocrisy, and it’s shameful.”
For its part, the Biden administration said officials have simply been doing their jobs as part of a nationwide “Investing in America” tour. Cabinet members have visited 37 states since November, and legal counsel is involved in travel and event planning to ensure Hatch Act compliance, according to a White House spokesperson.
The projects being touted in New Hampshire include infrastructure and clean energy investments, a recently announced preliminary award for BAE Systems Inc. under the CHIPS and Science Act, and programs to restore salt marshes, improve coastal resilience, and build out broadband networks, the spokesperson said.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack leaned into the timing of his Jan. 8 visit, during an event styled as a “town hall” at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, where he highlighted the Biden administration’s efforts to invest in communications infrastructure for telemedicine and distance learning, a facility for women and mothers in recovery in Lebanon, and $750,000 for a behavioral health facility in Franklin.
But before getting to all that, he wanted to quickly reminisce on his own political history in the state.
“I’m one of those recovering politicians who traipsed through the snowy hills and valleys of New Hampshire in 2008, briefly running for president,” he told the crowd.
Vilsack praised the state’s ethic of public service and personal contributions to democracy.
“This state basically celebrates democracy in a very significant and very personal way,” he said, echoing the very point champions of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary have been making for the past year.
The other cabinet officials who’ve come to New Hampshire since the start of December include Isabel Casillas Guzman, administrator of the Small Business Administration; Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo; Arati Prabhakar, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy; Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm; Interior Secretary Deb Haaland; Education Secretary Miguel Cardona; and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
A few more senior Biden administration officials have recently visited New Hampshire as well, including Assistant Commerce Secretary Alan Davidson; Danielle Carnival, deputy assistant to the president for the Cancer Moonshot; and Tom Perez, a senior advisor and assistant to the president and director of the office of intergovernmental affairs.
Polling indicates a majority of likely Democratic primary voters plan to write in Biden’s name rather than voting for one of his Democratic challengers, such as Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota or self-help author Marianne Williamson, both of whom have been actively campaigning in New Hampshire.
That said, there are signs of apathy and dissatisfaction among some voters who have historically backed Biden — and that might be evident in Tuesday’s election results.
Many young voters are not enthusiastic about Biden, including Tuna Akmehmet, 19, who is a sophomore at Dartmouth College. Akmehmet said he was involved with the college’s Democratic student group, but stopped attending meetings after growing disenchanted with how national Democrats are handling the primaries.
He plans to vote for Marianne Williamson in New Hampshire’s primary because he views her as a more progressive alternative to Biden, pointing to her support of universal healthcare. To Akmehmet, Biden appears “old and not campaigning well.” And he is angry about the Biden skipping the state.
“When it comes to the Democratic process, on the Republican side it seems they are more democratic because they are actually having primaries,” he said.
Tiani Coleman, 51, of Amherst emerged from a campaign stop in Manchester on Thursday with an arm full of Phillips swag and a big smile on her face. She said people aren’t enthusiastic about Biden, but she finally feels like Phillips is delivering a message she can be excited about, so she plans to vote for him.
Coleman, an undeclared voter who supported Biden in 2020, said she feels “terrible” about the way he and the DNC have treated the New Hampshire primary.
“I mean, we have been completely disenfranchised. Our votes don’t count,” she said. “Now, they still count in the sense that we can make a statement, and that’s important.”