MANCHESTER, NH – The keynote speaker at the inaugural Eleanor Roosevelt Dinner could have been Joyce Craig, the first woman elected Queen City mayor, or Safia Wazir, a political newcomer from Concord who took down a four-term incumbent in the September primary. It might have been comedians Samantha Bee or Michelle Wolf, or Eleanor Roosevelt herself channeled through a Magic 8-Ball. Instead, dinner organizers went with actor Alec Baldwin, him of the Saturday Night Live Donald Trump impersonation, and the decision left some in attendance – and some who opted not to attend – uncomfortable.
“I have mixed feelings because [Baldwin] may not be the best representation of the [Democratic Party] right now,” said Gillian Quinto, a senior at Phillips-Exeter Academy.
Baldwin, 60, has a somewhat checkered past when it comes to respecting women and using homophobic language. In recent days he has been catching heat for declaring, via an article in The Hollywood Reporter, that “Ever since I played Trump, black people love me.”
Quinto, not quite of voting age, attended the dinner with her school’s Young Democrats club. Many of the Phillips-Exeter students – there staffing doors and loyally checking for wristbands – after some smartphone Googling, agreed with Quinto’s assessment. Young Democrat organizations from Tilton Academy, Stevens High School, Hollis-Brookline, Fall Mountain High School, and Nashua High School (North and South) also attended.
“Given the fact that they just changed the name, it probably should have been a woman,” said Delaney Nelson, a Nashua South sophomore. Long the “Jefferson-Jackson Dinner,” the name of the annual event was changed in 2016 to the “Kennedy-Clinton Dinner.” The moniker was changed again this year to get some distance from the less savory aspects of presidents Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy’s personal lives and peccadillos.
Nelson’s classmate Sara Hinds agreed. “I’m not really down with [Baldwin] being the keynote speaker, but we’ll see how he does.”
Prescott Herzog, a Stevens sophomore, serves as vice president of the New Hampshire High School Democrats and political director of the High School Democrats of America. Herzog said he also would have preferred a female keynote, although that opinion may have changed after Baldwin invited him on stage and proclaimed Herzog and his peers the future of the party.
Some of the older Dems were also uncomfortable with the keynote pick, one woman saying she thought about it constantly during the drive to the dinner. Finding people who chose not to attend proved more difficult, although dinner-goers talked about a group from Amherst that opted to boycott, and a politician from Nashua.
The annual dinner at the Manchester Downtown Hotel is largely a fundraiser, attended by the better-heeled members of the party who paid $100 to $10,000 for tickets. The $10K ticket included a picture with Baldwin, special seating, VIP access to the cocktail reception, and a full-page ad in the event program. Before the speeches began, news clips and political ads featuring Dem hopefuls played on two projector screens in the front of the room. Music piped in for the event, in spite of the majority population of middle-aged white people in the room, trended heavily toward Motown hits. When party chairman Ray Buckley took the stage, he was accompanied by a tune by hip-hop artist DJ Khaled (himself a proponent of regressive gender norms).
In spite of her death (Nov. 7, 1962), Eleanor Roosevelt was omnipresent at the dinner, referred to and quoted by many of the speechmakers. Another oft-used talking point was the importance of respecting and listening to women.
“Support the women!” said U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen as part of her call to get Democratic voters to the polls in November. Shaheen said she was grateful to the women who have contacted her office in recent months to share their stories of abuse and assault.
Buckley presented Manchester’s own State Sen. Donna Soucy with the Eleanor Roosevelt Award, in honor of her “excellence in fighting for social and economic justice.”
U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan talked about her vote against the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and thanked Baldwin for attending the dinner and for “keeping people engaged at this critical time in our history.” (Right after Hassan’s speech, Baldwin – also short-fingered and not as tall as you might think – emerged from the wings with a cup of coffee and took his seat in the front row.)
Former party Chair Kathy Sullivan then claimed the mic to present the Kathy Sullivan Award to Safia Wazir, mother of three and naturalized U.S. citizen from Afghanistan.
“Women will not be silent any longer,” said gubernatorial candidate Molly Kelly when it was her turn to speak.
Executive Councilor Chris Pappas, an openly gay man running for the Congressional seat soon to be vacated by Carol Shea-Porter, stressed the importance of “[protecting] the dignity of every person regardless of who they love” and said there was “no place for people who use homophobic or misogynistic language.” Whether this was a dig at Baldwin, who lost his ABC talk show in 2013 after using homophobic language against a photographer, is not yet known. Pappas had not responded to an email asking this question by press time.
The Dems’ Emerging Leader Award went to State Senate candidate Jenn Alford-Teaster (Eighth District). Alford-Teaster thanked the party for the honor and spoke directly to Baldwin. “I almost wore my Liz Lemon glasses just for you,” she said, referring to Baldwin’s work with Tina Fey in the NBC comedy 30 Rock.
Congresswoman Annie Kuster came to the stage accompanied by Pharrell’s song “Happy,” and welcomed Pappas to the “all-women’s clubhouse” of New Hampshire’s Congressional representation. She also spoke of the women who opposed Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. “#MeToo is more than a moment,” she said. “It’s a movement.”
Baldwin took the mic last, to the tune of Frank Sinatra’s (who was reputed to be a bad drunk and abusive toward women) “The Best is Yet to Come.” He did not do his Donald Trump impression, but he talked about how his new family (four children under five years old) had changed his priorities and lifestyle, and he called for the legal and lawful overthrow of the current administration.
“Let’s make America great again,” Baldwin said, “by making Donald Trump a casino operator again.”
Asked, prior to the dinner, about the possibility that Baldwin’s inclusion in the event would put some people off, New Hampshire Democrats spokesperson Gabrielle Farrell wrote, “… the Party is graciously welcoming partners from all over the country who are willing to help elect Democrats up and down the ticket. Baldwin was excited to come and help raise money to elect strong Democratic candidates to office.”
The partnership seems to have worked. “We raised, thanks to Alec’s presence,” Chairman Buckley told the assembled crowd at the dinner, “an enormous amount of money.”
Editor’s note: Rob Greene is a registered Democrat.
