As NH Dems open fourth NH campaign office, Trump cash crunch seems to hold operation back

This week the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s coordinated campaign opened their fourth campaign office in the state, this time in the battleground town of Laconia. Congressman Chris Pappas and top party leaders were on hand to greet a large crowd of local Democratic supporters eager to get involved in what is shaping up to be a historic presidential contest with significant down-ballot consequences.

The coordinated campaign’s rapidly growing staff, currently sitting at 20+, will work to turn those supporters into a volunteer force to mobilize turnout among groups of targeted Democratic voters. The campaign expects to open even more offices in addition to the first four in the coming weeks. This early commitment of resources in the state will add to the work of many progressive groups that will also be driving voter turnout for Democrats.

“We’ve been knocking doors all over the state, talking to lots of voters and they are telling us the same thing … They want affordable, accessible health care, and they want to be able to know that they can get an abortion, have IVF treatments, and have Medicare,” said state Rep. Laura Telerski, Chair of the New Hampshire House Democrats Victory Campaign Committee, the organization charged with electing House Democrats.

The aggressive growth of the Biden campaign in New Hampshire is notable for its non-traditional start in the state, with a grassroots write-in effort. Meanwhile, Biden’s activity is set against a Trump campaign that seems stalled in the state despite going into the campaign cycle inheriting the considerable advantage of a winning early-state primary campaign infrastructure.

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Strong, winning primary programs typically offer a foundation for national presidential campaigns to hit the ground running, with key leadership roles in place, and organizing and fundraising operations bolstered by an in-state win.

Despite inheriting all those advantages, the Trump campaign in New Hampshire appears to have hit a wall, not opening a single additional campaign office outside of the one location in New Hampshire’s urban center of Manchester, with no public plans on expansion.

This comes after a well-publicized cash crunch for the Trump campaign, a major shakeup and layoffs at the Republican National Committee, which has just been taken over by Trump, and record fundraising for the Biden campaign.

New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley said one aspect of the stalled growth was lack of institutional knowledge in field programs by New Hampshire GOP leaders.

“The Republican Party of New Hampshire hasn’t really invested in the field game for many years. And I don’t think they’re going to start now,” said Buckley. “We believe that’s why we’ve been successful in New Hampshire these last couple of decades is because of the phenomenal work of our grassroots activists. They get out there, rain or sunshine, good elections, tough elections. They’re out there talking to neighbors, knocking on doors. We have found that that’s absolutely the most important thing.”

There’s some irony that the Trump campaign would base itself in Manchester, as the city has served as a punching bag for conservative leaders in the state like NH GOP Chair Chris Ager, who has referred to the city as “Manch-ghanistan” while Trump has previously referred to the state as a “drug-infested den.”