So goes the New Hampshire campaign, where the state’s famously fickle, independent electorate is known for sizing up the field one local event at a time. At least five candidates appeared in Merrimack alone Tuesday, shaking hands, tossing candy and introducing themselves to voters who didn’t know them.
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In an era where money outside PACs and the Trump campaign have chewed up campaign rules, small-town events are still a draw, candidates and strategists say, even if DeSantis’ vision crossing the Daniel Webster Highway to take photos in the rain. it’s more about image than substance.
“It’s still a big differentiator,” said Jim Merrill, a GOP consultant who has helped run campaigns for Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio in New Hampshire. “There’s going to be a lot of super PAC spending, there’s going to be a lot of digital advertising and debates and things of that nature. But the candidates still have to show that they’re authentic and relatable and that they seem sincere to voters.”
Tuesday’s parade had this in its mouth. DeSantis and his wife, Casey, walked with one of their young daughters, who spent much of the 1 ½-mile route riding Casey’s horse. Burgum brought a bucket of candy along the route. Scott greeted marchers earlier in the parade, joking with a man with a long beard who couldn’t grow so much hair, gesturing to his bald head.
“Do you want some?” asked the man.
One of the largest parade contingents was for a candidate who wasn’t there: Trump. The former president has often flouted New Hampshire’s well-worn political rules, riding celebrity and a hitherto unwavering conservative base to back-to-back primary victories and an early lead in the polls this time despite multiple criminal charges.
Its competitors, including DeSantis, probably don’t have the same luxury. Many are just starting to run for voters in the state, and except for DeSantis, they are single digit voting in a crowded field. According to the idea, it’s coffee shop chats, parade selfies and other on-the-ground campaigns that can help build support.
“People talk about how New Hampshire voters like to meet these candidates and shake their hands. It’s BS. But it’s the game you have to play,” said Andy Smith, director of the University’s Polling Center of New Hampshire.
Many New Hampshire voters don’t make up their minds until close to the primary, and despite frequent opportunities to interact with presidential hopefuls, only 20 percent take the opportunity to see the candidates up close, Smith said. National media coverage also has a greater influence on how people consume their news than the state’s single television network or local newspapers, he said.
“We’ve had a myth about grassroots campaigning in New Hampshire for a long time. It’s frankly not there. What’s important is to have the appearance of a campaign,” Smith said.
Trump has never been bound by this playbook. He’s not marching in a Fourth of July parade and he just did it rarely engaged in the personal, one-on-one questioning that the state’s voters famously demand. While from time to time stopped at the Red Arrow in Manchester money — a well-known happy place of delivery — his appearances usually involve rallies, not town halls or gatherings.
“I think it’s more of a movement than a person,” said Tammy Murphy, a 57-year-old Nashua resident, as she gathered with other Trump supporters before the parade, which featured a truck with a cardboard cutout of the former president . “I don’t think he avoids things. He literally doesn’t care.”
Other presidential hopefuls, meanwhile, walked through rain that turned into a steady downpour at the end of the route on Tuesday. DeSantis at several points said he was impressed by the turnout for the parade, noting to a supporter midway that “in Florida, people could have dispersed” at the time.
“We’re going to do a lot more here,” he told reporters afterward.
Some question whether this retail policy plays to DeSantis’ strengths. In a viral moment last month, the governor took a swipe at a reporter who asked why he didn’t answer questions from the audience at an event in Laconia, NH “Are you blind?” DeSantis said as he made his way through the crowd. “People come up to me and talk to me [about] whatever they want to talk to me about”.
DeSantis took questions last week at a Town Hall-style event in Hollis, but so far, his ability to mingle with voters has been “markedly poor,” said GOP consultant Tom Rath and former state attorney general.
“The problem with governors, they’re surrounded by a phalanx of state troopers and there’s an almost unnatural barrier between him and the voter,” said Rath, who noted that he’s only attended a couple of events where DeSantis has appeared. . “I haven’t seen him come out of the cocoon and really participate.”
DeSantis bounced from one side of the road to the other for much of the parade, regularly stopping to take photos or hand-pass an American flag to a family. He chatted with a fan about a documentary he watched on Netflix about the fastball, marveling at the velocities Nolan Ryan and other pitchers could hit.
Perhaps the only point of tension came at the end of the parade, when 15-year-old Quinn Mitchell said that when she tried to bond with DeSantis, her shirt was pulled from behind before team members DeSantis security surrounded him along the parade route.
His mother confronted DeSantis, repeatedly telling him, “This is not right,” as they walked.
Mitchell, who lives in Walpole, NH, said since 2020 he has attended about 70 events with presidential candidates to question them, including last week in Hollis. when he asked DeSantis did believe that Trump had violated constitutional provisions for a peaceful transfer of power. On Tuesday, he said he was trying to re-engage DeSantis to see if he had a different answer.
“I’m not going to blame DeSantis,” Mitchell said after the incident on the parade route, attributing it to over-aggressive staff. “He said, ‘Come to my next event.'”
Matt Stout can be reached at matt.stout@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mattpstout.
