MANCHESTER, N.H. – Massachusetts Congressman Joe Kennedy III stopped by Elizabeth Warren’s campaign offices on Chestnut Street on Thursday to energize a crew of assembled phone bankers with words on the importance of next year’s presidential campaign.
A one-time student of Warren at Harvard Law School, Kennedy (D-Mass.) believes that Warren’s well-thought policy plans make her the best choice as the next president of the United States, referencing a moment at her campaign launch in Lawrence, Mass.
“(She) said ‘This is going to be a campaign on ideas. We’re going to put them out there and we’re going to focus on them.’ And you know what? So far, she’s been good to her word,” he said. “(She has) the confidence that it takes to say, ‘look, you might disagree, but here’s what I believe. Evaluate it, read it, debate it. Come at me with it because no one else has come close to what those ideas have, and I’ve diagnosed the problems in this country and I have solutions to them. Engage me on it.’”
Kennedy also told the audience that the upcoming election is about more than electing a president, that it will be about trying to heal the damage done by the divisiveness of our current political climate, asking each volunteer in the audience to spread kindness one person at a time.
The event marked the fourth of the day in New Hampshire for Kennedy, and he praised New Hampshire voters, including the volunteers at the phone bank, for the diligence they take as part of the First in the Nation Primary.
Other speakers included State Senator and Manchester Alderman Kevin Cavanaugh as well as other volunteers, and campaign organizer Austin Weihmiller.
Originally from Hawaii, Weihmiller left home at 20 years old for Anchorage, Alaska. He told the crowd that there are times when he would rather be on a beach than knocking on doors or making phone calls, but he thinks back to a moment in Alaska.
There, he told the crowd that an individual came up to him and said that gay people were not welcome in Trump’s America and if he did not kill himself, they would kill him.
The energy of the event was not lost on Diane Sjogren of Bedford. Sjogren moved to New Hampshire from California in June and began volunteering for the Warren campaign shortly after that.
“I loved the Kennedys, I grew up in the era with John F. Kennedy as president, so of course they are very special to me,” she said. “It was great to hear him not being happy with what’s going on in America right now. I hope he can go across the country and support Democratic candidates and let people know that we’re better than this. That’s the message I heard today and it makes me feel better that other candidates are supporting Warren.”
