PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — In the parking lot of a Holiday Inn off Interstate 95, supporters of Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard gathered around a pick-up truck as the skies darkened on a stormy Wednesday evening. Volunteers were offering yard signs, stickers, t-shirts and hats, all emblazoned with the name "TULSI" in large bold letters, when the news slowly trickled through the small crowd: Gabbard would miss the scheduled town hall due to a delayed flight from New Jersey.
The disappointment lasted only for a moment. One of the supporters suggested a march, waving his sign up and down like a veteran protestor. Others mimicked following him around the parking lot. The volunteers soon shared that they were setting up a two-way video call with Gabbard and the group hurried into the hotel, where another 20-30 people remained, waiting patiently, in a long, windowless conference room.
Half-full, the room roared to life when Gabbard first appeared on the projector screen. The crowd waved and cheered, but a problem with the audio connection prevented Gabbard from starting into her stump speech right away. As volunteers worked to fix the issue and the Hawaii Congresswoman silently smiled at the group, one first-in-the-nation voter remarked, "This is the most unique candidate appearance I have ever seen!"
The uniqueness of the night did not stop when the audio finally connected and Gabbard began to address her supporters. She thanked them for helping her surpass the 130,000 donor requirement for next debates and touted her performance in the last edition, where she challenged California Senator Kamala Harris on her criminal justice record in a misleading yet effective response. "I feel the tides turning," she said.
She continued that voters have a clear choice in the primary and pledged to "put people ahead of profits, people ahead of partisan politics" before arriving at the thrust of her argument.
"Stay strong," she told her supporters. "There's been a bit of a backlash since the debate coming from the establishment that we are challenging and it's been interesting to see how when we speak truth to power, how those in power react to the truth and they're reacting largely with cheap smears and lies."
"The facade of strength that the establishment has is just that, it's just a facade," she later added.
The anti-establishment rhetoric from Gabbard was more than a response to Harris, who called the Hawaii Congresswoman an "apologist" for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad after the debate. Gabbard, an Iraq war veteran and anti-interventionist on foreign policy, met with the accused war criminal during a 2017 trip to Syria.
While many of her supporters cited her anti-interventionist stances, her hardline opposition to what she called "the rich and powerful elite establishment who've been in control and power for far too long to the detriment of the people" is the defining feature of her campaign.
During the question-and-answer portion of the town hall, Tom Chatigny, a professional wrestling referee, told Gabbard that in 2016, he was a supporter of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders "until he decided that he was going to back down and support Hillary." He asked Gabbard, who quit her position at the Democratic National Committee to serve as a high-profile surrogate for Sanders four years ago, "will you continue this fight?"
Gabbard explicitly committed to support the Democratic nominee at an event in New York the previous night, but deflected on Wednesday. "We're in this fight so that we can win the nomination, so that we can defeat Donald Trump," she said. "Let's stay focused on that goal, not think about the worst-case scenario," she later added. "We'll deal with that if we get there."
The first-time presidential candidate also declined to directly refute a retired army officer who complained about censorship of the movement to boycott, divest and sanction Israel in a lengthy question that included an anti-Semitic trope. "A lot of this stems back to what I consider to be sort of a Zionist control of our government," he said. "You would know more about that than I do."
Gabbard, who notably stopped nodding during that part of the question, did not address the anti-Semitism in her response. "Nothing is more fundamental to who we are as a country than our rights and our freedoms, and central among them are freedom of speech," she began, before continuing that she shared his concern about "overreaching intelligence agencies" and "big tech monopolies." Her line about why she is currently suing Google, which blocked her online advertisements in the hours after the first debate, won a round of applause.
She finished that she believes "strongly" in freedom of speech and opposes legislation to censor the BDS movement, but did not agree with the movement itself. "I don't believe that that is the best or only way to achieve justice or peace in the Middle East," she said. The retired army officer said after the speech that he was nevertheless satisfied with her response.
Shani Pomerantz, the New Hampshire coordinator for the Gabbard campaign, said after the town hall that there is "an amazing give-and-take" between Gabbard and her supporters. When asked about the anti-Semitic question, she credited Gabbard's response and her ability to "deescalate" and "bring that energy back to where it belongs."
"They don't get galvanized in too extreme a direction," Pomerantz added.
As Gabbard continues to assemble a big-tent coalition of anti-establishment voters, that claim will be increasingly put to the test. "We're getting Democrats, we're getting independents, we're getting Ron Paul libertarians, we're getting Republicans," Gabbard said during her speech. "Are you a Ron Paul libertarian?" she interrupted when Michael Schroth, a Navy veteran and supporter of anti-war candidates since George McGovern in 1972, waved at the camera.
In the second question of the Q&A, Schroth asked Gabbard to attend a Ron Paul Institute conference with him at the end of the month and pointed out that the Texas Republican finished a surprise second place in the 2012 New Hampshire primary. "You should call Ron Paul and tell him to invite me to his conference," Gabbard quipped.
The cross-over appeal of the Gabbard campaign among libertarians and anti-war conservatives was underlined by at least three questioners who identified themselves as Republicans, a highly unusual occurrence at a Democratic primary event.
In an interview the day before, New Hampshire Institute of Politics Executive Director Neil Levesque, who worked as a longtime aide for retired New Hampshire Congressman Charles Bass, mentioned Gabbard unprompted as an under-the-radar breakout candidate.
"When you drive around New Hampshire, you find these pockets of signs and you say to yourself, 'What is that all about?'" he said. "If you like a candidate and you actually put a sign in your yard, remember we're not voting until February, and you're wearing a t-shirt, you're definitely going to the polls for her. That is powerful stuff."
In addition to yard signs for supporters at private homes, the Gabbard campaign has also invested heavily in billboards, an unusual form of advertising, according to second-quarter Federal Election Commission disclosures reported by POLITICO. In downtown Manchester, there are billboards on Bridge Street and Elm Street, two of the busiest thoroughfares in the state's largest city.
The Gabbard campaign believes the unorthodox approach is starting to pay off, especially after the second debates. "Across the board, there are so many more people recognizing her name," Pomerantz said. Several supporters pointed out that she was the most googled candidate after the second debates.
But to qualify for the next debates, Gabbard will need that name recognition to transfer into higher poll numbers. She needs to record at least two percent in four DNC-approved polls to clinch a spot on the stage. Towards the end, she reminded her supporters that otherwise, DNC rules prohibit candidates from appearing on the same stage at the same time. "That's bullshit!" one supporter shouted twice.
"We are still working on getting those polls," Gabbard said in her closing remarks. "So continue to share the word with everybody who you know at the supermarket, at the farmer's market, online, Facebook, Twitter, everywhere."
This work is made possible by the Russell H. Bostert Memorial Fellowship at Williams College.
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