Everything you need to know about the 2020 race in New Hampshire today
Voters in New Hampshire — and across the country — are seeing a lot of Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg on Sunday.
With only two days until New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary, the two top candidates in the polls have a packed day of campaign events that began with a blitz of the national Sunday morning public affairs shows.
Sanders appeared on four of the Sunday shows in the morning, before beginning a three-stop afternoon in Hanover, which is home to Dartmouth College.
Buttigieg, meanwhile, did all five of the national Sunday shows — known in Washington as a “full Ginsburg” — plus an appearance on WMUR-TV's local Sunday morning show. He then moved to a busy schedule of four events throughout New Hampshire, starting in Nashua late Sunday morning.
The candidates ended Saturday at a state Democratic Party dinner in frigid Manchester, where Buttigieg defended himself from attacks on his experience, and raucous crowds backing Sanders and Elizabeth Warren packed the rafters of Southern New Hampshire University Arena.
Overnight tracking polls in the state continue to show Sanders and Buttigieg jockeying for first place, after the same two candidates finished in the top two spots in the Iowa caucuses last week. Significantly behind them are Warren, Joe Biden and Amy Klobuchar, who had her best night of polling on Saturday after what was widely regarded as a strong performance in Friday night’s ABC News/WMUR-TV debate.
Klobuchar, didn't appear on any of the national Sunday shows, start4d her day greeting voters at a breakfast spot in Concord, the state capital. Biden, meanwhile, holds his first event on the Seacoast in Hampton after appearing on ABC’s “This Week.” Warren will also be interviewed on “This Week.”
Here’s everything you need to know about Sunday’s strategy, where the campaigns are and what they are doing. Our reporters will be fanned out across the state following all the top campaigns — so check back throughout the day as we update this story with key moments and new developments on the campaign trail.
1:01 P.M.
Pete packs 'em in at Nashua event
NASHUA, N.H. — After a busy morning of TV interviews, Pete Buttigieg drew more than 1,800 voters for his first event of the day, requiring an overflow room for those who couldn't fit into the gym at Elm Street Middle School.
His stump speech hit its usual notes, including pushing back on the idea that a small-city mayor isn't experienced enough to become president. "Remember, mayors have to get things done. You are never going to hear [about] the city government shutting down because the two parties couldn’t agree," he said.
But a telling moment came in the form of a question: "Please address the 'billionaires for Pete' criticism."
On Saturday night, Bernie Sanders' supporters chanted "Wall Street Pete" at Buttigieg as he spoke during the state Democratic Party dinner. It's a frequent attack from both the more liberal campaigns of Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who have drilled the mayor for raising money in high-dollar fundraisers. Both Sanders and Warren swore off big-money events early in their presidential bids.
On Sunday, Buttigieg asked, in answer to the question, "Any billionaires here? Alright. Just checking." Buttigieg noted that his campaign has 2 million individual donors, averaging "under 40 bucks."
"Now, out of the hundreds of thousands of people who've supported our campaign, some of them have a lot of money," Buttigieg said. "And just as I'm going to expect them to pay more in taxes when I'm president, I invite them to contribute as much as they can if they can share our vision for defeating Donald Trump."
— Elena Schneider
12:26 P.M.
Bernie vs. Pete on the Sunday shows
Of the five national Sunday shows, four of them featured both Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg in separate appearances — and the two polling front-runners in New Hampshire used the opportunity to take swipes at each other.
The two sparred mostly on campaign finance issues, with Sanders hitting Buttigieg for accepting donations from "billionaires." Buttigieg touted that he, too, has a network of small donors, and he took a shot at Sanders' status as a millionaire.
"Well, Bernie's pretty rich, and I would happily accept a contribution from him," Buttigieg quipped on CNN's "State of the Union."
9:37 a.m.
Biden: New Hampshire an 'uphill battle'
The New Hampshire primary is in two days — and Joe Biden only has two public events in the state Sunday while his top rivals are barnstorming it. At noon, Biden has a get-out-the-vote in Hampton near the border with Maine and then another in Hudson near the Massachusetts border.
In a pre-recorded interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that aired Sunday, Biden acknowledged that winning New Hampshire would be an “uphill battle” – echoing remarks he made at Friday’s debate that he then felt the need to clarify Saturday, insisting, “I’m not writing off New Hampshire.”
As POLITICO noted last week, Biden has said he doesn’t need to win New Hampshire. And he’s campaigning like it.
— Marc Caputo