For the first time this cycle, a presidential candidate has campaigned in Maine north of Portland. Hawaii Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard held a town hall Sunday night for a crowd of nearly 200 people in Hallowell.

She also swung over to Farmington Monday morning to tour two of Origin USA's factories.

Gabbard began her town hall joking to the crowd about holding the first presidential event in Hallowell in nearly two decades.

"Thank you for coming out this evening," said Gabbard. "It's good to be here in Hallowell. You have these presidential events all the time here, right?"

She gave her campaign pitch but spent most of the time answering questions from the audience.

"My favorite thing about this presidential campaign is this opportunity to go and actually look into people's eyes, have these face-to-face interactions, hear what's on their mind, answer their questions," said Gabbard.

Gabbard served two tours in the Middle East and is the first female combat veteran to run for president.

That could play well in a state that has one of the highest veteran populations per capita in the nation.

"For veterans to know and have the confidence that their Commander in Chief knows what it's like to walk in their boots, who has seen the loss of our brothers and sisters in uniform and understand the cost and who pays the price and how we can best take care of our veterans when they come home is absolutely essential," said Gabbard.

North Berwick resident Michael O'Connor says he supports Gabbard because he thinks she can bridge hyper-partisanship and get the parties to work together.

"I want to see people like Tulsi getting involved -- people who are willing to do the hard work of getting things done," said O'Connor.

Gabbard spent most of Monday morning in Farmington touring Origin USA. She's friends with Jocko Willink, a partner of the business.

"The story of Origin is literally the definition of the American story," said Gabbard.

Origin sells 100% American-made jeans, nutrition supplements, martial-arts gear, boots, and more.

Founder and CEO Pete Roberts gave the tour of two of their three factories. He's proud of the jobs they've created thus far and hopes to continue the huge growth they've seen over the past few years.

"America was founded on these principles of putting your hands in the dirt, and I feel like if you put your hands in the dirt still and put your ear to the ground you can hear the heartbeat of America growing stronger," said Roberts. "Maine and Origin -- this is the tip of the spear. There's no better place to try to make this happen."

Gabbard says Origin should be used as a model to create manufacturing jobs in the U.S.

"Origin is doing what has happened and what has happened in Maine for generations but we've seen too many of those jobs leave," said Gabbard. "So the fact that they are making this happen here I think is an important example that elected leaders here in Maine, elected leaders in Washington, need to look to."

After the tour, Gabbard caught a flight to campaign in Virginia.

Maine hits the polls on Super Tuesday, March 3rd.