The Hill’s Campaign Report: Candidates make last-minute push in New Hampshire

Welcome to The Hill’s Campaign Report, your daily rundown on all the latest news in the 2020 presidential, Senate and House races. Did someone forward this to you? Click here to subscribe.

We’re Julia Manchester, Max Greenwood and Jonathan Easley. Here’s what we’re watching on the campaign trail. 

 

LEADING THE DAY:

MANCHESTER, N.H.– With less than 24 hours to go until Granite State voters make their voices heard in the first-in-the-nation primary, candidates are crisscrossing New Hampshire in a last-minute effort to attract voters. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) held events in New Boston and Hampton, while former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg held a “Meet Pete” event at Plymouth State University, as well as get-out-the-vote rallies in Milford and Exeter. 

Meanwhile, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who has surged to third place in polls in the state,

had a full plate of events on primary eve. Klobuchar started her day at a Keene State College get-out-the-vote event before she traveled to Nashua for a smaller Rotary Club meeting. The senator also held get-out-the-vote rallies in Exeter, Rochester and Manchester. 

Sanders, Buttigieg and Klobuchar are some of the most talked about candidates among undecided voters in the state, which is also reflected in the most recent polls out of New Hampshire. 

An Emerson College poll released on Sunday showed Sanders at 30 percent, followed by Buttigieg at 20 percent, and Klobuchar at 13 percent. Sanders, as a New England senator, has a home field advantage and won the state handedly four years ago. 

Meanwhile, Buttigieg is carrying momentum from Iowa. He’s had rock star receptions at a number of his events, with supporters touting his “level-headedness,” “intelligence” and personality. 

Klobuchar has surprised the political and media world with her rise to third in the state. The senator is seeing enthusiasm and curiosity from voters on the ground. On Sunday morning, 737 voters came out to see Klobuchar in Manchester and a whopping 1,100 in Nashua. 

 

PROGRAMMING NOTE:

We’ll be covering President Trump’s rally in Manchester tonight and will be on the ground covering the primary tomorrow. Get the latest in tomorrow’s Campaign Report newsletter!

 

READ MORE: 

Moderates battle for edge in crowded lane ahead of New Hampshire, by Julia

In New Hampshire, high anxiety about beating Trump, by Jonathan and Julia

Buttigieg leans into mayoral record as rivals go on the attack, by Jonathan

 

FROM THE TRAIL:

CONVENTION CHAOS? The drama surrounding the Iowa caucuses has stoked fears among some Democrats that the party may be heading towards a brokered convention in July, Jonathan reports from Nashua, N.H. With the New Hampshire primary just a day away, five top-tier candidates are soldiering on, confident that they can still play a part in the Democratic nominating process. Waiting for them at the end of February is Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor, who has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on his presidential campaign in Super Tuesday states. That all raises the likelihood of a prolonged primary fight in which none of the candidates manage to win the 1,990 delegates needed to clinch the party’s presidential nomination.

 

BIDEN LOOKING AHEAD: Biden has had better weeks. He finished in fourth place in the Iowa caucuses and conceded at a primary debate in New Hampshire on Friday that he was likely to take a hit in the Granite State, as well. But in an interview with “CBS This Morning” on Monday, he insisted that his political fortunes would improve once the primary race heads to Nevada and South Carolina, Max reports. “Nothing’s going to happen until we get down to a place and around the country where there’s much more diversity. And you know, you’re always behind the eight ball when you’re running in New Hampshire and you have two people from the neighboring states,” he said, referring to Sanders and Warren. 

 

IOWA FOREVER: Buttigieg is leading the count of national delegates in Iowa after the state Democratic Party updated data from more than half of caucus sites, The Hill’s John Bowden reports. The reexamination of vote tallies from last week’s caucuses didn’t change the overall outcome, which already showed the former mayor in the lead. But it did award Buttigieg one more delegate than he had before. According to the party, Buttigieg received 14 delegates, Sanders received 12, Warren received eight, Biden received six and Klobuchar received one. Still, apparent errors and inconsistencies have led news outlets, including The Associated Press, to decline to declare a winner in the first-in-the-nation caucuses.

Sanders and Buttigieg moved on Monday to request a partial recanvass of the Iowa results, pointing to reporting errors and inconsistencies that they say deprived them of state delegate equivalents, the metric used to determine delegates to the national convention. 

 

DNC UNDER FIRE: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) is demanding that Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Tom Perez resign in the wake of the Iowa caucuses, which have been beset by reporting errors, inconsistencies and technical difficulties, The Hill’s Rebecca Klar reports. In an email to supporters this weekend, Gabbard said that Perez had “broken” voters’ trust in the process. “That’s why today I’m asking that you join me in demanding that Tom Perez accept responsibility for this gross failure in leadership and resign now,” Gabbard wrote. “Under the leadership of Tom Perez, the DNC has kowtowed to billionaires, caused a debacle in Iowa, and undermined the voter’s trust in our elections.”

 

PERSPECTIVES:

Marik von Rennenkampff: On the economy, Democrats must brag louder than Trump

Mathew Burrows and Julian Mueller Kaler: Democrats need more than histrionics to beat Trump in November

J.T. Young: Democrats fan on three straight

 

MONEY WATCH:

Donations poured into Klobuchar’s campaign in the hours following last Friday’s Democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire, The Hill’s Edward Moreno reports. The Minnesota senator’s campaign announced on Saturday that she had raised $2 million less than 24 hours after the forum in Manchester. She has repeatedly lagged behind her top rivals in fundraising, but her campaign touted the sudden cash injection as a sign of momentum. “With proven grassroots support, Amy continues to outperform expectations and punch above her weight,” her campaign manager Justin Buoen said. “Following her debate performance, we’ve raised $2 million and have seen an outpouring of donations from all 50 states, which will allow us to compete in New Hampshire and beyond.”

 

POLL WATCH:

QUINNIPIAC – NATIONAL

Sanders: 25 percent (+4)

Biden: 17 percent (-9)

Bloomberg: 15 percent (+7)

Warren: 14 percent (-1)

Buttigieg: 10 percent (+4)

Klobuchar: 4 percent (-3)

Yang: 2 percent (-1)

 

UMASS LOWELL – NEW HAMPSHIRE

Sanders: 25 percent (+2)

Buttigieg: 17 percent (+5)

Warren: 15 percent (-4)

Biden: 14 percent (-8)

Klobuchar: 8 percent (+2)

Steyer: 5 percent (-1)

Gabbard: 4 percent (-1)

Yang: 3 percent (+1)

 

AMERICAN RESEARCH GROUP – NEW HAMPSHIRE

Sanders: 28 percent (+/-0)

Buttigieg: 20 percent (+8)

Biden: 13 percent (+/-0)

Klobuchar: 13 percent (+6)

Warren: 11 percent (+/-0)

Gabbard: 3 percent (-5) 

Yang: 3 percent (-2)

Steyer: 2 percent (+/-0)

 

CNN – NEW HAMPSHIRE (TRACKING)

Sanders: 28 percent (+/-0)

Buttigieg: 21 percent (+/-0)

Biden: 12 percent (+1)

Warren: 9 percent (+/-0)

Klobuchar: 6 percent (+1)

Gabbard: 5 percent (-1)

Yang: 4 percent (+1)

Steyer: 2 percent (-1)

  

MARK YOUR CALENDARS:

Only one day left until the New Hampshire primary. There are 12 days until the Nevada caucuses, 19 days until the South Carolina primary and 22 days until Super Tuesday. 

 

ONE FUN THING: 

For the past week, the Iowa Democratic Party has been scrambling to right the ship after a series of technical difficulties and errors marred the results of the first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses. 

So when the IDP’s sign fell off a podium as the party’s chair Troy Price delivered an update to reporters on the caucus debacle on Monday, it seemed to capture how so many Iowa political operatives are feeling about the drama. 

IDP Chair Troy Price answers question about why the party can’t change mathematical problems on the caucus night worksheets in the results: pic.twitter.com/o8z0dV9bcO

— Iowa Starting Line (@IAStartingLine) February 10, 2020