A two-term congressman’s campaign demonstrates the difficulty hopefuls have in breaking through the crowded field

Joe Sestak, three-star admiral, two-term congressman, and Democratic presidential candidate, strode into his campaign event in New Hampshire last Tuesday to something of an anticlimax.

There was only one person there.

“Hello,” Sestak said, shaking the hand of the lone attendee: a woman named Kath Allen. The rally had been billed as a discussion of government’s role in society, and was held in the downstairs room of a public library in Peterborough, south-east New Hampshire.

It was an inauspicious start to the two days the Guardian spent with Sestak, 67, who is spending three weeks campaigning in New Hampshire – including walking 105 miles (169km) across the state – as he seeks to build momentum for his little-known campaign to take on Donald Trump in the race for the White House in 2020.

But it was also an insight into the difficulty that even seemingly well-qualified candidates have in breaking through the noise of a densely populated Democratic field, and the money and effort spent on campaigning that runs under the radar.

Sestak, 67, spent four years in the House of Representatives, representing a traditionally Republican Pennsylvania district, until 2010. He announced his run for the presidency on 23 June. Before this New Hampshire sojourn, he had spent three months in Iowa, holding 235 events, driving 17,000 miles (27,000km) and, according to his campaign, “shaking nearly 30,000 hands”. He started his ramble across New Hampshire on 13 October, and is planning to cover 105 miles (169km) in eight days.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Joe Sestak, a two-term congressman, announced his run for the presidency on 23 June. Photograph: Mark Lorenz/The Guardian

So far, all that effort has had little impact. The most recent polling shows Sestak has the support of 0% of Iowans and 0% of New Hampshirites. Both states vote in three and a half months. A Quinnipiac nationwide poll released on Monday also bore bad news. Of 1,195 registered voters, Sestak was the choice of … 0%.

On the same day, Sestak met Allen in Peterborough, the 12 leading Democratic candidates were debating in Ohio on CNN. The audience was 8.3 million: disappointing for CNN, but priceless exposure to someone like Sestak.

Yet, to his credit, Sestak persevered with his one-person crowd in Peterborough. He’d walked there, after all – seven miles, from Dublin. Sestak’s staff will pick him up and drive him to some of his farther-flung New Hampshire events, but he plonks a stick in the ground at the end of each walk, and starts there again the next day.

That same persistence was eventually rewarded at his Peterborough event, when, after speaking to Kath Allen and three journalists for half an hour, a second person showed up. And after listening to Sestak, Allen was impressed.

He had answered her questions about senior care, and healthcare – he prefers the centrist Medicare-for-all-who-want-it-style plan, rather than the more progressive, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders proposal of Medicare for All. He had confidently fielded queries from the latecomer, about nuclear power. (He is in favor, but wants to use thorium reactors, not uranium.) But Allen wasn’t planning to vote for him, and she was skeptical about whether he will be the Democratic nominee.

“I don’t think he can get it,” Allen said. “People want the flamboyant. And he’s not well-known.”

“I like other candidates, I like Tulsi, I like Joe. I really like what Joe has to say on most of the things,” Allen said. “But I don’t know. I’m gonna see how this plays out.”

By the time Sestak entered the race, most of the other candidates had been running for months. (John Delaney, a businessman and three-term congressman, had been running for almost two years.)

Sestak announced his candidacy late because he was caring for his daughter, who had been diagnosed with cancer for a second time. Happily, she is now in recovery, but his late entry means other candidates have pulled ahead. It goes without saying that his rivals have drawn larger crowds. Some 15,000 people attended an Elizabeth Warren rally in Seattle in August, and her campaign said 20,000 came out to an event in New York City in September.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sestak is planning to cover 105 miles (169km) in eight days as he campaigns in New Hampshire. Photograph: Mark Lorenz/The Guardian

As the 12 leading candidates prepped to go onstage, Sestak attended his third event of the day: a local Democratic party meeting in Goffstown, 40 minutes north-east of Peterborough.

It was 6.30pm before Sestak arrived and started speaking – 10 people had shown up – and he had another event in Windham, 35 minutes away, at 7.30pm. He promised to keep it short, and started with a joke.

“I’m actually in the debate tonight,” Sestak told the crowd.

“Congratulations!” someone said. They sounded surprised.

“Online,” Sestak said. “We’re doing a live stream, in a Dunkin’ Donuts.”

Sestak had used the same gag at the Peterborough library, where Allen had been halfway out of her chair going for a high five before he dropped the punchline.

As promised, that night Sestak held his own online debate. He answered the same questions posed to the candidates on stage, live from a Dunkin’. Sestak was sitting quite far away from the camera and it was difficult to hear him. At 9.57pm, just three people were watching the live stream on Sestak’s Facebook page, and the Guardian was one of them.

Part of Sestak’s problem may be that he is a centrist, white, older man, in a field with plenty of centrist, white, older men. Sestak’s USP, though, is his foreign policy experience and, given the chance, he ties it well to other aspects of the presidency.

Climate change, for example. Sestak tells voters the US could pass the Green New Deal – the sweeping progressive proposal to tackle the climate crisis and inequality through economic reform – but it won’t make a difference to rising temperatures, given 80% of emissions come from the rest of the world.

“We need someone who can unite this country and convene the world,” Sestak says, promising to bring the country together in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidency.

The Guardian met Sestak again the day after the debate, in Peterborough, where he had planted his stick on Tuesday. He had 18 miles (29km) to walk on Wednesday, and he expected to be on the road until 11pm. We set off walking east, uphill, at a fast pace, Sestak wearing black hiking boots. He walked across Pennsylvania in 2015, when he campaigned for the Senate – he lost in the primary – and believes the benefits outweigh any potential pain.

“It seems to be catching a little bit,” he said of his campaign. As well as walking and meeting people, Sestak is running a TV ad campaign in New Hampshire.

“We see people who are seeing our ads. It’s coming to a point of once you know I’m out here serving, trying to serve you, and they’re interested.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘I wouldn’t go through this if I didn’t think we have a possibility of winning,’ said Sestak as he walks across New Hampshire. Photograph: Mark Lorenz/The Guardian

Sestak doesn’t regret entering the race late. But he agrees he missed out on early exposure.

“Would my position have been enhanced if I had got in earlier? With the town halls happening, I think it would be a bit easier,” Sestak said. With his lower profile, his campaign has been told by some of the main networks that they won’t book him for interviews – even on foreign policy, despite his experience.

He raised almost $375,000 in the third quarter of 2019, a total that pales in comparison with the $25m Warren raked in, or even the $2.3m raised by Steve Bullock, the Montana governor running at a more Sestak-esque 0.2% in national polls, but not a bad start.

That fundraising total, combined with his polling, means he is highly unlikely to meet the threshold for the next televised Democratic debate in November. But, marching uphill in New Hampshire, Sestak told the Guardian he had no plans to drop out.

“I wouldn’t go through this if I didn’t think we have a possibility of winning,” he said.

He had an additional 16 miles (26km) to go that day – a long way, but nothing compared with the distance he has to make up if he is to be the Democrat’s choice in the race for the White House.