Laconia, NH – Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden have been spending plenty of time courting voters in New Hampshire in recent months. Yet you’d be hard-pressed to find overlap in the crowds turning out to see them.
As Vermont’s senator expounds on a progressive platform that includes Medicare for all and a sweeping $16 trillion climate action proposal, vying with Sen. Elizabeth Warren for support from the progressive branch of the Democratic Party, Biden is comfortably courting voters in the center.
“Wisdom is in the middle,” said Ron Lyman, who supported former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the last election and turned out for Biden’s campaign event Friday in Laconia, a town nestled in the lakes region of New Hampshire.
Biden could help to bridge the divide between the right and the left in the country, while other candidates may simply widen the ideological gap already splitting voters, Lyman said. “We need somebody in the middle of the two factions in this country.”
John Mellencamp’s “Rock in the U.S.A.” and Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” played over the speakers Friday to a room filled predominantly by people over 60 years old. Before Biden jogged to the front of the crowd, everyone stood for the pledge of allegiance.
For over an hour on Friday, the former vice president told voters the reason he chose to run for the White House is because he wants to “restore” America to what it was before President Donald Trump took office.
“What is most at stake in this election is that we are in a battle for the soul of America,” Biden said. “The dark underbelly of America has shown up at other times. But the truth is, it’s time to remember who in God’s name we are as a country.”
“The fact is everybody knows who Donald Trump is, but I’d like to know who we are,” he went on. “People across the country have to say ‘Enough.’”
Biden, who has been gaffe-prone throughout the election cycle, was agile as he wove personal stories about growing up in a middle class family with platitudes about returning “god given American values” and “decency” to the country.
However, he also touched on policy that few candidates have discussed during this election cycle. Discussing cancer research and health care, Biden said he would like to adopt a military industrial complex approach to finding cures for deadly diseases, similar to the Defense Department’s advanced applied sciences division, known as DARPA.
“Why don’t we have the same thing in health?” Biden said.
Biden’s affability and message of reversing course back to before Trump without moving too far to the left resonated with the crowd.
“The real objective is to beat Donald Trump,” said Bill Stewich, a Laconia resident who said he still doesn’t know who he will vote for. “I think the field is going too far left and Joe is the best choice. But it’s all in the eyes of the beholder,” he added.
Sanders, during his trips to the first-in-the-nation primary state, has opted for intimate “ice cream socials” and “breakfasts with the candidate”, which have attracted young families to hear him speak about his policy driven stump speech on economic inequality.
The Vermont senator, famous for refusing to discuss his personal life while on the campaign trail, is only now starting to open up about his life with voters.
Biden too has gone for the more personal approach, with smaller gatherings to allow for more interaction with audiences, but his crowds have tended to be on average older — a voting demographic he is polling strongly with — than Sanders’ usual suspects.
So far it seems like Biden’s strategy is working, both in New Hampshire and across the country. An early August poll of Granite State voters by the Boston Globe and Suffolk University had Biden at 21% and Sanders behind with 17%.
Joe Caiazzo, Sanders’ New Hampshire campaign director, said in a recent interview it might come down to who gets more votes from working class families.
While neither Sanders or Biden see New Hampshire as a must-win for their presidential prospects, both need enough delegates to get the math and momentum moving in the right direction starting on primary day, Feb. 11, 2020.
