Clinton shakes hands, knocks on doors in Manchester’s Ward 4

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Hillary Clinton campaigns in Manchester with NH Sen. Lou D'allesandro on High Street.
Hillary Clinton campaigns in Manchester with NH Sen. Lou D\’allesandro on High Street.

MANCHESTER NH — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton canvassed with state Sen. Lou D’Allesandro in Manchester’s Ward 4 on Saturday.

On a sunny but cold afternoon, the former secretary of state spent about 40 minutes knocking on doors and talking to residents on Belmont and East High streets. She traveled with a pack of media and staff, as well as a Secret Service detail and a New Hampshire state police vehicle.

“I am feeling so good,” Clinton told a WMUR reporter before she left. “I’m doing one of my favorite things, which is going door to door.”

Clinton said she wants to balance these one-on-one conversations with the campaign rallies that draw larger crowds.

“I try as much as I can to have much more personal contact with people,” Clinton said. “This is what’s real to me.”

D’Allesandro, a Manchester Democrat, said he knew many of the residents who spoke with Clinton. He had also canvassed with Clinton during her 2008 campaign. The two carried clipboards, which campaign staff said included voter information for undecided likely Democratic primary voters. She and D’Allesandro walked arm-in-arm on the slushy sidewalks between homes.

“They don’t realize how warm and personal and real this woman is,” D’Allensandro said later about Clinton.

At the first house, Janet O’Sullivan came outside to greet Clinton on her porch.

Clinton followed O’Sullivan into her home, followed by D’Allesandro, Secret Service and several campaign staffers, including a videographer. The media remained outside, and the candidate emerged about 10 minutes later.

Clinton continued to the next house, while O’Sullivan watched her from the porch. O’Sullivan said the campaign knocked on her door about 45 minutes before Clinton arrived, asking if she was a Clinton supporter and if a high-profile member of the Clinton campaign could stop by her home shortly.

She had already decided to support Clinton, but she hesitated. Her husband Joseph has Alzheimer’s, and she worried he would be confused. But O’Sullivan hasn’t been able to see the candidate in person, so she quickly readied herself and then greeted the candidate on the front porch.

“She was lovely with my husband,” O’Sullivan, 74, said. “She went right up to him and shook his hand. It was sweet.”

O’Sullivan said she told a story about her 6-year-old grandson and talked to her about her husband’s disease.

“I said to her, ‘Are you exhausted?’ She said, ‘I’m tired, but I’m energized,’” O’Sullivan said.

The young woman at the next house also came out to greet Clinton and D’Allesandro on the front steps, and they talked for about 10 minutes. At one point, a passerby shouted an expletive in Clinton’s direction. She spoke to residents at four homes in total, as well as several people who came to greet her on the sidewalk. Neighbors and passersby took photos and paused.

At one home, she posed for a photo with a woman on the porch and then hugged her.

“Tell your husband I’m sorry I missed him,” Clinton told her.

Clinton also posed for photographs with passersby, and with the troop of six young volunteers who followed along with campaign signs. As the candidate, her staff and the press, the campaign vehicles inched along on the road. The media bus was parked around the corner.

One young volunteer — 24-year-old Jake Jarvis — approached Clinton for a handshake.

“It’s my birthday, and all I want is for you to win,” he told her.

Jarvis told Clinton he got addicted to painkillers and then heroin after a surgery, and his family helped him get clean in October 2013. Now, the New Jersey native is a student at Tufts University in Boston. But he took a semester off to work as an unpaid fellow for her campaign.

Clinton listened and asked questions about his personal story.

“I thanked her for her policies on addiction,” Jarvis said later. “She really picked it up from talking to people directly in the state, and it shows she really listens to people here. I don’t think she thought she would be talking about this as much as she did, but then she got to the state, and she noticed and she pays attention, and she wants to do something about it.”

Two young children in snow pants and their father ran over to the black SUV for a photo.

“I wish I could go sledding today,” Clinton told them.

When a reporter commented on the weather and an upcoming forecast for snow, Clinton laughed.

“Well, people in New Hampshire, Granite Staters, they’re a hearty bunch,” she said. “I imagine they’ll be showing up to vote.”

She climbed back in the black SUV and departed around 1 p.m., behind schedule for her next rally in Concord.


Press pool report filed by Megan Doyle of the Concord Monitor.

About this Author

Carol Robidoux

PublisherManchester Ink Link

Longtime NH journalist and publisher of ManchesterInkLink.com. Loves R&B, German beer, and the Queen City!