Trump’s Rivals Pitch Early-State Voters on July 4.
Trump’s Rivals Pitch Early-State Voters on July 4.
At a high school cafeteria in Merrimack, New Hampshire, on Tuesday, Governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota mingled with families who were digging into eggs, sausage, and pancakes at a Fourth of July breakfast that was hosted by the local Rotary Club. In the background, patriotic music blared from the speakers, and the lunch tables were decked out in star-spangled napery.
One of the potential voters in the rather tiny gathering, Nelson Disco, who was 88 years old, had a few of questions for him. Why was he making such a mad dash? And with what political faction?
Mr. Disco screamed, “You’ve got some competition,” when the North Dakota governor informed him that he was seeking the Republican nomination for president. “You’ve got some competition,”
But Mr. Burgum wasn’t phased by the setback; he said that he was “feeling great” about the race.
It was the final Fourth of July before New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation Republican primary, which is set for February, and the famed kingmaking caucuses in Iowa. Although there is plenty of time to make up ground, it was clear for the darkest of dark horses who were burning shoe leather on Tuesday that there was a great deal of ground to make up.
There were also some more well-known rivals present in New Hampshire. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is now in a distant second place in the Republican primary polls to former President Donald J. Trump, participated in two parades, including one that brought Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who is still in the rear of the pack in the race for the Republican nomination. Trump is currently in the lead in the polls. The weather was not pleasant; Mr. DeSantis, Mr. Scott, and others who were strolling in the afternoon procession in Merrimack, New Hampshire, got drenched when a downpour passed across the area.
Independence Day campaigning is a time-honored tradition in New Hampshire and Iowa, dating back to the beginning of the state’s caucuses and primary elections. That would be more than a century of winners and losers in parades, picnics, and pancake breakfasts held in the state of New Hampshire. This year, though, there was a twist: The prohibitive front-runner, Mr. Trump, skipped the hustings and stayed home with his family instead of campaigning. Instead, he fired out nasty social media messages from his house.
In spite of this, the minions of his campaign and his own imposing shadow continued to cast a long shadow over his rivals.
As Mr. Trump’s former vice president and current contender, Mike Pence, marched in the parade in Urbandale, Iowa, onlookers began chanting “Trump, Trump, Trump” as he walked by. Pence was competing with Mr. Trump for the Republican nomination for president.
Melody Krejci, who is 60 years old and lives in Urbandale, claimed that her entire family, including their grandchildren, backs Donald Trump. They also wear caps and clothes with Trump’s name on it. According to what she stated, there are posters of Trump in their rooms as well.
She continued, saying, “I think Pence is a coward,” pointing to the false assumption, which is being propagated by Mr. Trump, that his vice president could have rejected enough electoral votes on January 6, 2021, to send the 2020 election back to the states and perhaps reverse Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory. This is a view that is still held by many people, including Mr. Trump.
It used to be that showing up on the Fourth of July really mattered. This was before super PACs filled the airwaves, social media carried politicians’ messages right to voters’ cellphones, and partisans were riveted to their preferred cable news shows.
“Retail has always been mostly theatre, but now it’s all a performance for the cameras,” said Fergus Cullen, a former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee. “It’s not about meeting regular people and listening to their concerns,” Cullen said. “Retail has always been mostly theatre.”
Competitors of Donald Trump’s hoped that it would still matter this year. Volunteers and supporters of Mr. DeSantis waited in Merrimack, New Hampshire, to walk with their candidate in the Fourth of July parade there. They were standing near a dance troupe wearing hot pink shirts, a wooden float filled with members of the Bektash Shrine Clowns, and a yellow school bus decorated as the boat from the Boston Tea Party. The parade was held on July 4.
However, it was yet another Republican presidential candidate, Mr. Scott, who made a commotion first when he showed up on the parade route followed by a swarm of photographers and television cameras.
Mr. Scott was asked by reporters what he thought of the folks coming up to shake his hand while wearing DeSantis and Trump clothing. In response, he told the media, “Hopefully some of those voters will become our voters.” “However, at the end of the day, we give thanks to God that we have people who are committed to the country and committed to the idea that traditional conservative values will always be effective.”
Will Hurd, a former representative from Texas, and his wife, Lynlie Wallace, were seen mingling with participants in a road race as they stood outside of a pancake breakfast in Merrimack, New Hampshire.
Mr. Hurd, a moderate Republican and a fierce critic of Mr. Trump’s who is trying to get his fledgling presidential campaign out of the starting gate, said he had just finished touring the northern border near Vermont. According to Mr. Hurd, the northern border near Vermont faces problems similar to those at the southern border in his home state, including low resources and increased drug trafficking. Mr. Hurd is trying to get his fledgling presidential campaign out of the starting gate. According to him, problems like these were exactly the kind he intended to address. But for the time being, he continued, he was content to merely be out there shaking people’s hands.
“I take it that today’s agenda includes making new acquaintances?” Mr. Hurd said. It’s not true that everyone is pessimistically perusing through social media or watching cable news.
What about Trump? He stated, “I’m sure people are thankful that he’s not out,” and I believe he was correct. “He brings a lot of baggage into the relationship.”
Voter acknowledgment of that baggage, which now includes felony charges in New York connected to the payment of hush money to a porn star and federal felony charges in Miami accusing him of misusing highly classified documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them, was the source of any glimmer of hope for the dark horses in the race.
Jim Miller, who was 73 years old at the time, was spectating the Urbandale march in Iowa with his wife and other members of their family. He admitted that despite his two votes for Donald Trump, he was dissatisfied with the candidate’s demeanour. He is looking for a candidate that prioritises being an American over belonging to either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party.
When Mr. Miller was asked to compare Mr. Pence to Mr. Trump, he responded, “Not even close. Pence is the one I’d take in a heartbeat.”
As for Mr. Burgum, he acknowledged that he was aware of how difficult it would be for him to even be considered for his party’s presidential candidature, and he stated that he accepted this reality. He referred to the issue of name recognition as being “familiar.” However, he also mentioned that many had misjudged him when he decided to run for governor in 2016, after having spent his whole life working in the private sector.
That contest was won by him by a margin of 20 percentage points, and ever since then, he has not had a significant challenger in North Dakota.
