EXETER, N.H. — They say Beto O’Rourke’s star is dimming. Voters in the Granite State see it differently.

According to the polls and pundits, the former Texas congressman – who turned the national buzz he got for nearly defeating U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz last year into a presidential bid — has had trouble keeping his momentum going.

He did well in first-quarter fundraising, but has slipped in the polls in recent weeks, his spotlight eclipsed by the likes of Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, and outshone by former Vice President Joe Biden’s inevitable entrance into the race. A Monmouth University poll released Thursday had O’Rourke with only 2% support among likely New Hampshire Democratic primary voters, far behind Biden’s 36 percent. Buttigieg came in third, with 9%.

“It’s not dimmed, it’s just sharing the spotlight” with other “phenomenal candidates,” said Democrat Scott Marion of Rye.

Marion said he was an “early supporter” of O’Rourke.

“I think he’s great. I think he’s got the right attitude, the right energy,” Marion said. But, “I could say that about at least 15 of the other 21 candidates.”

With a Democratic primary field of nearly two dozen, New Hampshire voters told the Herald it’s not that O’Rourke is losing steam — it’s just that there are a lot of other contenders. And more keep coming.

During a sunny town hall event held in a public park in Exeter Saturday afternoon, Marion asked O’Rourke, “how do we decide?”

“I hope to demonstrate to you that I’ll work anytime, anywhere, with anyone, to advance this country’s agenda,” O’Rourke said.

O’Rourke cited his lived experience along the southern border, at a time when immigration policy is roiling the national debate, and a message of unity, including his time as a congressman in the minority, when he said “we were able to get things done by finding common cause.”

His agenda also includes giving a woman the power to make “her own decisions about her own body,” ending marijuana prohibition at the federal level, instituting universal background checks for gun purchases and curbing climate change.

With Mother’s Day on Sunday, O’Rourke asked the crowd of nearly 300 to “think about all those moms in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras who do not know where their kids are today in the United States of America, and our opportunity in this great democracy to make sure that we make it right for all of them.”

Later, a woman asked how O’Rourke, a white man, would earn her vote amid a diverse field of candidates including several women and minorities.

“I don’t think, nor do I feel entitled, to anyone’s support or vote. I hope to earn it by describing to you the vision that I have for this country, that is informed by meeting people like you,” O’Rourke said. “If I am not your choice, if I do not become the nominee, I’m going to do everything in my power to make that nominee successful — not just against Trump, which is critical — but successful in bringing this country together in January 2021.”

Susan Drinker of Exeter went into the day keeping an open mind. “As the pool grows, there are more candidates to listen to and hear what they have to say,” she said.

She left that way, too, but walked away satisfied by what O’Rourke, a candidate often criticized as all flash, no substance, had to say on gun control and climate change.

“He spoke to a bunch of my points. I liked his answers to the questions,” Drinker said.