NEW LONDON, N.H. — Democrat Pete Buttigieg is testing the limits of neighborly goodwill in the Granite State — doubling down on his pitch as the bold but pragmatic challenger to those looking for an alternative to next-door presidential hopefuls Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

“There’s no question that there’s a strong neighborhood advantage if you live close to New Hampshire, but there’s also no question that voters here think for themselves,” Buttigieg told the Herald in an exclusive interview Friday. “There’s a strong independent-minded streak here in New Hampshire and our message is resonating.”

The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Ind., doesn’t lean as far left as the Massachusetts or Vermont senators, nor does he have the Washington experience of former Vice President Joe Biden.

That’s exactly the contrast he’s banking on to win over voters in the home of the first-in-the-nation primary. Backed by more than a dozen offices and 60 staffers statewide, Buttigieg is pitching himself as the candidate “who can advance bold ideas and bring people together around them.”

“That’s what most voters are insisting on,” said Buttigieg, who polls fourth on average in New Hampshire, according to Real Clear Politics, far behind the top three. “That sets us up for a very good performance in New Hampshire and I imagine over time the numbers will reflect it.”

Buttigieg is playing hardball now — drawing real contrasts with the three front-runners as he continues to carve out a lane as the alternative to the far-left senators and to the moderate Biden.

He’s hit Warren on how she would fund “Medicare for All,” saying Friday, “It’s certainly striking that on the top issue in the race, we haven’t heard a plan of how it’s going to be paid for.” Warren said she would soon unveil her plan.

Buttigieg’s “Medicare for all who want it,” offers a public option that wouldn’t prevent people from keeping their private insurance. It would be paid for in part by rolling back President Trump’s corporate tax cuts and is “fiscally sound as well as the right thing to do,” he said.

“We can’t deliver a bold policy if it polarizes people right out of the gate,” Buttigieg said.

Buttigieg returned to New Hampshire this week riding a wave of momentum from the last debate and the rollout of his “Women’s Agenda” allocating billions for preventing workplace sexual harassment and supporting women’s businesses, and pledging to appoint women to at least half his cabinet and judiciary positions.

At an overflow event at Colby-Sawyer College, Buttigieg stopped short of committing to selecting a woman as his vice president, saying he didn’t want to “tell anybody that they’re ineligible” and that gender and race would be “a central consideration.”

Voters praised Buttigieg’s intelligence, his more moderate pragmatism, his youth and diversity as a gay man.

Former Buttigieg New Hampshire state director Michael Ceraso said the campaign is doing “an excellent job” tapping into the mayor’s momentum. But he said Buttigieg “still has to deal with the electability argument. Can he beat Trump? Can he build out that diverse coalition that Biden has?”