MANCHESTER, N.H. — At a debate watch party in downtown Manchester, the Warren campaign and a handful of local supporters gathered for the first televised debate of the 2020 primary, as Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren stood center stage as the highest-polling candidate.
The Warren campaign, highly touted as "out in front of the rest in terms of organization" by former Obama advisor David Axelrod in early February, turned out in full force to pack the Louisiana-themed restaurant decorated with blue-and-red "Win With Warren" signs. The campaign is reported to have more than 50 staffers on the ground in New Hampshire.
One of those staffers, a regional political director, explained before the debate that she is reaching out to elected officials, community leaders and local activists to hear feedback on her candidate's many plans. She said the Warren campaign was "open to critique" and echoed the maxim popularized by former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill that "all politics is local."
She described the growing list of Warren supporters as "really fired up," a group that "spans in age range" from older residents struggling with retirement planning to younger couple dealing with student loans. She highlighted the student debt cancellation policy, but said that voters are connecting with many different policies put forward by the Warren campaign. "It's not just one thing," she said.
A couple minutes before the start time, State Representative Jackie Chreitien, who officially endorsed Warren later in the week, addressed the room to declare her support for the Massachusetts Senator. A mother of three children, Chreitien credited "a million reasons, a million plans" behind her decision, but cited the universal childcare policy of the Warren campaign, which would subsidize and regulate a nationwide network of facilities that would then charge families based on their ability to pay.
An organizer in Manchester, New Hampshire spoke next, telling the crowd that the struggle of her mother who emigrated from Taiwan reminded her of the struggle of Warren. "She has the lived experience to understand the plight of the working class and the plans to fix it," she said.
When the debate finally started, the Warren staffers and supporters applauded enthusiastically after each of her answers, as the Massachusetts Senator started strong with a well-reviewed and drama-free showing over the two-hour debate. As the other top-tier candidates prepared to take the stage in less than 24 hours, Warren emerged unscathed, well-positioned to ride her momentum from the early summer into July and August.
This work is made possible by the Russell H. Bostert Memorial Fellowship at Williams College.
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