It was standing room only in Tucker Lodge when Pete Buttigieg turned up to make his pitch for support in next year’s New Hampshire Democratic primary.

The Granite State’s position in the primary calendar gives it a political importance which outweighs its size. The meeting was one of many which will be held over the next 12 months as New Hampshire voters get the chance to see presidential candidates at close quarters.

More than a hundred people trudged through the slush to hear what the unlikeliest of candidates had to say.

The youthful mayor of South Bend, Indiana, a rustbelt city of just over 100,000 people, is catching the imagination of voters in a race where he is seen as a rank outsider in what is likely to be a vast field of candidates.

Mr Buttigieg is the first openly gay candidate to run for the presidency, having come out while running for office in Indiana.

“There were - apart from a little bit of hostility online - two main types of reaction,” he told the Telegraph in an interview.

“One was from people who went out of their way to show they were supportive and the other was from people who wanted to make it clear they didn’t care,” he said.

“I am aware of the historic nature of that and at the same time, I do hope that we are moving towards a world where it would not be newsworthy; it is just one more attribute somebody brings to the table.”