[K]EENE, N.H. — When Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders launched his 2020 presidential bid last month, he skyrocketed past his rivals by raising nearly $6 million in the campaign’s first 24 hours.
Fellow Democrat Beto O’Rourke just topped that, reaping $6.1 million after his own White House announcement this past week. The haul, however, hasn’t gone to his head. Ten days after Sanders’ rented this city’s storied Colonial Theatre for a kickoff rally, O’Rourke stepped atop a bench at Keene State College’s Student Center for his inaugural visit to the first-in-the-nation primary state.
“We want to thank you for your patience and for coming out,” said the candidate who was an hour and a half late because he drove himself more than eight hours from a morning appearance at Penn State University.
The former three-term Texas congressman faces other challenges in Sanders’ backyard. The Vermonter won the 2016 New Hampshire Democratic Primary by 22 percentage points over eventual party nominee Hillary Clinton and tops the latest 2020 Granite State Poll.
Sanders kicked off his New Hampshire campaign last week with acutely orchestrated speeches in the capital city of Concord and here in Keene, just 15 miles from the Green Mountain State. In comparison, O’Rourke, who narrowly lost a bid last fall to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, is more improvising.
O’Rourke, for example, rented a minivan to travel from Tuesday morning’s Penn State program to the evening Keene event. The 6:40 p.m. publicized arrival time soon became 7, then 7:30, then 8, when he broadcast an update on Facebook Live.
“We’ll be there soon,” he said from behind the steering wheel. “This is the longest drive of the campaign so far. Eight hours on the road. So there’s still some kinks to work out.”
The crowd waited more out of curiosity than commitment. While the local Sanders’ rally drew hundreds of supporters with Bernie T-shirts and signs, only a handful of people had Beto gear — and even they were open to alternatives.
“I’m not decided at all,” 26-year-old visiting graduate student Jennifer Bowers said in a Beto shirt. “Bernie’s the only other candidate I’ve ever seen.”
O’Rourke, aiming to seem part of the crowd yet stand above his competitors, declined Keene State College’s invitation to appear in one of its auditoriums and instead asked to speak in the student center’s atrium between its cafeteria and bookstore.
“We’re trying to keep him on a bench,” said a college employee who knew the candidate often perches atop tables. “I don’t want to have to catch him.”
Then again, with hundreds of people squeezed into the sprawling space, there were plenty of hands ready.
Reporters from as far as the Dallas Morning News found O’Rourke’s rapid-fire, arm-flailing remarks a task to summarize — “more stream of consciousness than crafted talking points,” the Boston Globe said — as the candidate pinballed from income inequality to immigration, international relations, health care, education, voting rights, racism and climate change.
“That’s why we must come together as a country,” he said, “and transcend the divides of geography and party and any other differences at this defining moment of truth.”
O’Rourke plans on visiting all 10 of New Hampshire’s counties in a three-day whirlwind tour, but waited until Keene to reveal his stops Wednesday in Claremont, Conway, Durham and Plymouth, and Thursday in Laconia, Manchester and Portsmouth.
The candidate says he’s driving hard to keep up. Asked about recent news that Sanders’ staff would be the first presidential campaign to unionize, O’Rourke said he was open to doing likewise.
“Absolutely,” the El Paso resident told a Fox News reporter in the press pool. “If those who work on this campaign and who comprise what I hope will be the largest grassroots effort this nation has ever seen, want to unionize, I support that all the way.”
