MANCHESTER, N.H. – In February, New Hampshire voters head to the polls for the First in the Nation Primary. In preparation for that, on Jan. 25 nearly 1,000 Granite State Democrats gathered at 22 pre-primary delegate selection caucuses to determine the presidential campaign candidate delegate slates that those voters on Feb.11 will transform into a large part of the state’s delegates at this summer’s Democratic National Convention.
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In the First Congressional District, 10 of the 11 campaigns that had people running to become their New Hampshire delegates at the Democratic National Convention placed their caucuses in Manchester, with former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s campaign putting their caucus nearby in Hooksett.
Eric Schlidge of Hampton was one of the delegate candidates for Elizabeth Warren’s campaign, one of six campaigns in the First Congressional District with contested races for four-person slates of male and female delegates as well as one of three caucuses meeting at Manchester Community College.
There will be 33 Democrats and 17 Republicans on your Primary ballot
Schiledge was there with his significant other and fellow delegate, candidate Carliegh Beriont, one of two couples running to represent Elizabeth Warren in Milwaukee for the Democratic National Convention this summer. He described the scene like “a Warren supporter Twitter feed come to life.”
‘It was just so inspiring to see all of the different reasons to see people show up and put their time and energy into Elizabeth Warren,” he said. “We know why it is we’re in this fight, but hearing from some of her most committed volunteers, it helped us as we get closer to the primary.”
While Beriont was not one of the top four female vote-getters at the Warren caucus, Schiledge earned the most votes on the male side, meaning he will head to Milwaukee if the Warren campaign gets at least 15 percent of the votes on Feb. 11, given the male-female-male preferential order in the First Congressional District and the female-male-female order in the Second Congressional District, which switches every four years.
Meanwhile, at the Falls Convention Center on Front Street, Manchester resident Jim McLeod was named as one of the top four male vote getters at the caucus for the Pete Buttigieg campaign. McLeod was inspired by Buttigieg to lose over 50 pounds.
“It’s wonderful seeing so many people motivated for Pete out in this crowd. It’s just so full of energy,” he said. “Having never had the experience before, [the caucus] was a little different, but was just what I expected. It went great.”
McLeod said that no matter who wins the Democratic nomination, he will support the Democratic nominee, something stressed by New Hampshire Senate President Donna Soucy at the Warren Caucus as she served as moderator at the proceedings.
Saturday marked the first time since 1996 that the Manchester State Senator had not been a candidate for delegate in one campaign or another, having not endorsed a candidate in this year’s primary.
“Many of the people they have been laboring for Elizabeth Warren for many, many months now. Going door to door, going to phonebanks and campaign kickoffs, so there was definitely a lot of excitement and camaraderie in this room,” said Soucy.
At the Warren caucus, both winning and losing candidates reverted to their normal roles as campaign volunteers after the event, heading out to knock on doors after a few words from Warren’s husband, Bruce Mann.
Mann apologized to the crowd that Warren was in Washington due to the ongoing impeachment proceedings, thanked them for gathering, and reminded them that united they could address the nation’s problems.
“(Elizabeth) knows the start of this grassroots campaign was created by people like the one in this room and elsewhere across the state and across country, and together we can do this,” he said.
