How New Hampshire’s Democratic Establishment Chose Clinton over Its Constituents

On Friday night, three days before they were to compete in New Hampshire’s presidential primary, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders appeared at the Verizon Center in Manchester, for a glitzy rally held by the state Democratic party.

Sanders’s supporters came out in force, shaking the stadium during the Vermont senator’s speech and bellowing their approval every time he railed against the “billionaire class.”

Then, New Hampshire governor Maggie Hassan took the stage to introduce Clinton, and hundreds of them immediately stood up to head for the exits.

“It is always a great pleasure to welcome back to New Hampshire my friend, Secretary Hillary Clinton!” Hassan said, as Democrats backing Sanders continued to stream out of the stadium. “Hillary’s strong record of leadership has proven she’s the right person to lead our country and get things done. And that’s why I am so proud to support her as president of the United States!”

At that point, hundreds of Sanders supporters — about half of “his” side of the stadium — had already left. Those who remained sat stoically, their arms crossed while Clinton’s partisans cheered.

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Sanders looks set to dominate Clinton in Tuesday’s Granite State primary. Almost every poll taken over the last week gives him a strong double-digit lead in the state. So it’s surprising that New Hampshire’s Democratic establishment seems to be willfully ignoring its constituents’ wishes by maintaining a steadfast devotion to the former secretary of state.

In addition to Hassan, the state’s sole Democratic senator, Jeanne Shaheen, campaigned hard for Clinton last week. So did Annie Kuster, its only Democratic House member and a favorite of progressives. Nine of New Hampshire’s ten state senators openly back Clinton, as do the Democratic members of the state’s powerful executive council and the chairs of most committees in the state’s House of Representatives.

Will they pay a price for scorning their rank and file, especially if Sanders wins? They certainly don’t think so. “No, no, it doesn’t carry over,” says Sharon Nordgren, a longtime state representative and Clinton supporter. “No matter what happens, I think that Democrats have a history of always coming together behind the Democratic candidate,” says Nordgren’s colleague, Mary Jane Wallner, who is also supporting Clinton.

Voters often overlook presidential disagreements with powerful state officials. Though he failed to convince Iowa caucus-goers to give up their support of Texas senator Ted Cruz last month, Iowa governor Terry Branstad remains extremely popular in his state. But the scale of Sanders’s lead over Clinton appears larger than any advantage Cruz had over his Republican rivals in that case. And some New Hampshire progressives backing Sanders are particularly angry at the establishment’s favoritism.

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“Yeah, they’re a problem,” says Stephanie Scherr, a progressive from western New Hampshire. “I think they’re looking at Bernie Sanders, and he’s not offering them big bucks, and she is. . . . I believe she’s making all these backroom deals with people.” Whether that sentiment will translate into a genuine political backlash remains to be seen. But it can’t be comforting to Hassan and Kuster, each of whom faces competitive elections in November.

New Hampshire’s powerful Clinton backers scoff at the notion that they’re out of touch with their own electorate, saying Clinton isn’t nearly as unpopular as she seems. “I think Hillary will do better than people think,” says Jeff Woodburn, the minority leader in New Hampshire’s senate. “This is not going to be a 20-point race. I think it is going to be closer than that, and I think she’s going to get the momentum to go forward.” Nordgren simply says, “I don’t believe the polls.”

#share#But other officials express shock at Sanders’s overwhelming popularity, especially considering that Clinton won New Hampshire in 2008. “One of the things that surprised me is that he has such a strong appeal to young people,” says state senator Martha Fuller Clark, whose role as vice chair of the New Hampshire Democratic party compels her to remain neutral. “I thought they would’ve said, ‘Oh, he’s an old codger, I’m not going to support him.’”

That dynamic wasn’t immediately apparent last year, when Clinton began racking up endorsements in the state. “[Sanders] wasn’t up by 20 points when they signed on board,” explains Michael King, the only one of a half-dozen former New Hampshire Democratic party chairs to endorse Sanders. “When they endorsed, she was the prohibitive favorite. And it probably made sense for them.”

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“Everybody wants to go with a winner,” says Richard McNamara, a Democratic state representative also backing Sanders. “I think the state higher-ups thought, ‘You know what, Hillary is going to win. And we better get on board early.’”

But it was more than just picking an early favorite — personal and professional ties between the Clintons and New Hampshire’s Democratic leadership run deep. Both Hillary and Bill campaigned for Shaheen, Hassan, and Kuster in 2014, when all three faced tough reelection fights. “I do think the Clintons have a history in New Hampshire,” says Wallner. “People know them. For many of us, we followed Hillary.” Chris Pappas, a Democrat on the state’s executive council and a Clinton supporter, says the same staffers who ran Shaheen’s reelection bid are now working for the Clinton campaign.

“Let’s not forget that Secretary Clinton campaigned for all these people when they were running for election two years ago, four years ago,” says Norm Patenaude, a member of the Rockingham County Democratic Committee and an erstwhile Martin O’Malley backer. “IOUs are part of the political game, and these people have known one another for a long time.”

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Struggling to explain why their endorsements haven’t landed, most pro-Clinton Democrats in the state cite anti-incumbent sentiment and the unexpected surge of new, younger voters. “They might be new to the party,” says Wallner, noting their lack of devotion to Clinton. Fuller Clark argues that the underlying makeup of New Hampshire’s Democrat electorate may have changed. “We need to understand that Sanders has been able to energize and bring out a whole lot of new voters,” she says. “What you’re seeing is this tremendous attraction to authenticity. They feel that what Bernie says is who Bernie is. There’s a little bit more — people aren’t so sure about Hillary.”

At a Sanders town hall in liberal west New Hampshire, several voters fumed over the full-throated endorsement Clinton has received from party bigwigs. “I’m a big supporter of Annie Kuster, and to have her support Clinton was very disappointing for me,” says Katherine Franz of Peterborough. “And I think it must have something to do with an insider kind of thing.”

#related#“They support each other,” says Scherr, the Sanders backer, indignant. “When I was at [the] Dem convention in Manchester, both Shaheen and Hassan introduced ‘their friend’ Hillary Clinton. Maggie Hassan went and hugged Hillary Clinton — went right past Sanders, didn’t even acknowledge him.”

Still, New Hampshire’s high-profile Clinton backers aren’t especially worried that these new, energized voters will come for them with pitchforks if Sanders wins by a huge margin. “People need to feel heard, they need to have a debate, a discussion,” says Woodburn. “When you shut them down, when you do not allow them to be heard, that’s when you have that backlash. You know, [Sanders’s supporters] are going to have a very fair hearing.”

He pauses for a moment. “Maybe too fair.”

— Brendan Bordelon is a political reporter for National Review.