[car groaning] lisa lerer Do — do you think that’s the brakes? clare toeniskoetter I think so. lisa lerer Should we not take this car? [LAUGHING] It seems slightly concerning. [car groaning] jessica cheung Oh. clare toeniskoetter We’ve gone this far. lisa lerer OK, well. You know. jessica cheung You know. archived recording 1 Here’s your Accuweather forecast. A winter weather advisory in effect today. Clouds and some snow, sleet and — archived recording 2 And we’re just a few short days away from the primary in New Hampshire. We are flooded with presidential candidates. And — archived recording 3 If it wasn’t already, the ground is cracking underneath Iowa in terms of being the first caucus in the nation. archived recording 4 So many things to interpret. We don’t even have a headline. archived recording 5 We don’t. And it’s unclear, actually, when we will get these results. archived recording 6 Everybody’s working really hard, and voters show up and expect to have their vote counted. archived recording 7 I mean, I don’t care for the caucus situation one bit. archived recording 8 I’ve always maintained that the New Hampshire primary is a far better way to determine how people feel about the race. It’s a direct vote. clare toeniskoetter There’s a Tulsi sign. jessica cheung This is a nice neighborhood. clare toeniskoetter They’re cute houses. jessica cheung Yeah, they look like dollhouses. lisa lerer Well, they’re very, like, colonial. gps voice Your destination is on the right. lisa lerer So that’s probably — oh, this is 11. Oh, it looks nice. [knocking on door] speaker Hi. jessica cheung Hi. We’re from The New York Times. I’m here to meet Atlan Schmidt. woman Yes, he lives next door. jessica cheung He lives next door! OK, so sorry. interposing voices So sorry. Sorry to bother you. lisa lerer So sorry. jessica cheung Sorry to bother you. speaker No problem. Bye bye. clare toeniskoetter Bye. lisa lerer Oops. Wasn’t it 11? laughter

lisa lerer

From The New York Times, this is “The Field.” I’m Lisa Lerer in New Hampshire.

atlan schmidt You’re in the right place. interposing voices Hello! Sorry. clare toeniskoetter Did you see us go to the wrong place? atlan schmidt No, I didn’t. But a lot of people have a lot of trouble navigating this neighborhood. clare toeniskoetter We went to your neighbors. atlan schmidt Come on. Come on in out of the rain. interposing voices Thank you. atlan schmidt Sure.

lisa lerer

So last week, after a chaotic few days in Iowa, I flew up to New Hampshire on Wednesday night, where I met up with Daily producers Clare Toeniskoetter and Jessica Cheung.

jessica cheung Do you want us to take off our shoes?

lisa lerer

And the race there seemed less agonized than it had in Iowa. For months, Bernie Sanders had been way out in front, with everybody else — Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and the rest of the field — trailing far behind.

atlan schmidt Want to sit down, or how do you wanna work this?

lisa lerer

That’s not especially surprising. New Hampshire is a state where independents are allowed to vote in the party primaries. So that’s a group that should like him. On top of it, he’s the senator from the neighboring state, Vermont, so a lot of people here have known him on a first name basis for decades.

atlan schmidt Oh, my name is Atlan Schmidt. I’m a software engineer, and I’ve been in New Hampshire since 1978. lisa lerer When did you first, first learn about Bernie Sanders? atlan schmidt My family vacationed in Vermont two weeks every year for a long time, and I carried on that tradition for a long time as well. So even back when Bernie was the mayor, I started to know just the name. But when he was the congressman in Vermont, I actually started to follow him. And then he became the senator. I did make a stop up his senatorial campaign office, made a donation and got the senatorial t-shirts. lisa lerer Do you still have the shirt? atlan schmidt Oh, yeah. Oh, I still have the shirt. I really wanted to show my support for the guy and encourage him in his future endeavors. Which turned out to be pretty big. archived recording (bernie sanders) Today, I am proud to announce my candidacy for president of the United States of America. [CHEERING]

lisa lerer

So in 2015, when Sanders announced he was going to run for president against Hillary Clinton, he finds a lot of support in New Hampshire.

atlan schmidt And as we got closer to the primary in New Hampshire, we were doing honk and waves continuously. Every Saturday morning, the Bernie team was out. And the response just got better and better and better as the weeks went by.

lisa lerer

Even when Hillary Clinton was presumed to be the nominee, even after she narrowly won the Iowa caucuses, Atlan says he could still feel the wave building.

atlan schmidt To the point where a really noticeable fraction of the people going by were responding positively to us. So we were very confident in 2016 that things were going to go well. And it did work out that way. archived recording 1 Breaking news. NBC News projects Bernie Sanders has won the New Hampshire Democratic primary, defeating Hillary Clinton. archived recording 2 Bernie Sanders crushes Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire. archived recording 3 This is a shellacking or more. It’s a total rout if you look at the state of New Hampshire. 60 percent for Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton at 39 percent. archived recording 4 (CHANTING) Bernie, Bernie, Bernie, Bernie, Bernie, Bernie, Bernie. archived recording (bernie sanders) Thank you, New Hampshire. And now it’s on to Nevada, South Carolina and beyond. [CHEERING] lisa lerer What do you think New Hampshire liked about him so much? atlan schmidt I think the fact that he speaks his mind very plainly. We’re pretty plainspoken here in New Hampshire. I think the things he was advocating were, even back then, things people were feeling the need for. People very much wanted change. My wife, as a state rep, went door to door and a lot of Republicans told her they wanted change. They would have liked the good change that Bernie Sanders could have brought. But if they couldn’t get that, they were going to get change anyway. What they ended up doing, of course, is they ended up voting for Trump. And I think those people are still out there, and they still want change. And they want good change. They’re not happy with what they got. jessica cheung We’re in — we noticed in our drive up here that we’re in a really beautiful, picturesque neighborhood. And we’re in a very beautiful house, and you’re a software engineer. And I wonder why someone like you would want a burn-it-down candidate. atlan schmidt Because even though I have a nice job right now, I was laid off from my last job when my job went to Costa Rica. They had me train up my replacements from Costa Rica and then said, thanks, we don’t need you anymore. I would like to see a sustainable economy in this country. I’m getting to retirement age. I’d like to see the opportunity to retire, perhaps with health care, which I won’t have otherwise. My life would be better, I think, if President Sanders were running the joint. lisa lerer You think — so you think he’s going to win here? atlan schmidt I think he’s going to win here in New Hampshire, yes. I think he will win a plurality. And I think it’ll be a comfortable plurality.

lisa lerer

So with days left before the primary, Sanders’s base of support felt pretty secure here in New Hampshire. Our question was, what about the rest of the candidates? Because what we had just seen in Iowa was that Sanders support had been pretty secure there, too. And so, for the most part, the more moderate candidates had been competing with one another for a share of the same group of indecisive voters, voters who were trying to decide which candidate could best beat Donald Trump, and who didn’t think that person was Bernie Sanders. And that vote fragmented. The preliminary results from Iowa were showing Sanders and Buttigieg basically neck-and-neck. Warren was in third, and Biden was a very disappointing fourth. But New Hampshire prides itself on being contrary and ignoring the results of Iowa. So we wondered if those voters in New Hampshire who don’t support Sanders, if they might start to come together around someone else.

clare toeniskoetter “Live free or die.” Are you guys voting in the primaries? speaker 1 Oh, yeah. speaker 2 Yeah. lisa lerer So you guys hear what’s happening in Iowa? speaker 1 Yeah. Bo — booty egg, right? Buttigieg — speaker 2 Bernie won the caucus, no? speaker 1 No, it was Boot egg. Booty-egg, [laughing] speaker 1 Doesn’t Iowa always mess up?

[music]

lisa lerer Does New Hampshire do it better? interposing voices Absolutely. I would say so. I would definitely. lisa lerer Have you followed what’s happened in Iowa? speaker 3 What happened in Iowa? No one knows. [CHUCKLING] speaker 4 I think I was up until 4 o’clock in the morning the other night, just thinking it can’t last any longer. Can’t possibly last anymore. lisa lerer Do you think somebody came out of there looking like a winner? speaker 5 Looks like Bernie and Pete Buttigieg are — speaker 6 But that’s Iowa. Who cares, right? [laughter] speaker 7 Iowa’s job is to cull the field. And they didn’t do that. They failed, right? I think Michael Bloomberg looks like a political genius at this point for avoiding Iowa. lisa lerer So what do you guys think about Iowa? speaker 8 Uh. speaker 9 Uh. speaker 8 Um, uh, Iowa is just a big clare toeniskoetter “Poop.” lisa lerer Haha. That might be the quote of the episode.

[music]

lisa lerer What do you make of Iowa? You think it — how do you think that changes the dynamic here? speaker 10 New Hampshire voters are very independent. The results of Iowa really aren’t going to impact how New Hampshire votes. speaker 11 Oh, good lord, no. They’re in another country. You need a passport to go to Iowa from New Hampshire. speaker 12 Um, depending on the result, it might, it might. I don’t know. Just maybe seeing what those people think could influence what I’m thinking as well. speaker 13 I don’t know. I think it was interesting. I don’t think people expected Joe Biden to do as poorly as he did. lisa lerer Does that change how you view him? speaker 13 No, I don’t think so. But I think it might other people, yeah. lisa lerer Are you into him? speaker 13 I’d say like 50 percent. lisa lerer And who’s the other 50? speaker 13 Probably Mayor Pete. Yeah, yeah. lisa lerer But you don’t think the fact that Pete did well and Biden did poorly impacts how you now make your decision? Because I assume you want electability as a thing, like you want — speaker 13 Yeah, no, I think I would — it swayed me a little bit more towards Mayor Pete. lisa lerer That makes sense. speaker 13 Just seeing the results there, yeah. Yeah.

lisa lerer

So on Thursday afternoon, three days after the Iowa caucuses, with still no winner called —

clare toeniskoetter OK, it’s 3:15 on Thursday. We’re at this Pete Buttigieg rally. And they won’t let us in, because it’s at capacity.

lisa lerer

We shop at an American Legion hall in Merrimack, and the room is already overflowing.

clare toeniskoetter I’m standing on the stairs trying to get around, and I can see about 40 people just outside, also trying to get in.

lisa lerer

And actually, before he goes onstage —

archived recording (pete buttigieg) We are taking no vote for granted. Obviously, we feel a lot of momentum coming here, but I know how New Hampshire doesn’t — is never told what to do. Folks here think for themselves.

lisa lerer

— Buttigieg comes outside and gives a little speech to everyone waiting outside in the freezing rain.

pete buttigieg So if you’re here as a supporter, thank you so much for that, and please continue to spread the word. If you’re here to make up your mind, please stay tuned. We’ll continue to be doing events all through the state and hope to earn that support as we go into Tuesday. Thanks so much again. I appreciate your patience. crowd (CHEERING) Doing a great job. All right, great job!

lisa lerer

And after about 45 minutes of standing around —

applause

lisa lerer

— we’re able to talk our way inside.

dave hennessey To do what he just did, taking questions like that off the cuff —

lisa lerer

And we meet this guy named Dave Hennessey, whose wife — he calls her the boss — had just wandered away.

dave hennessey She’s going to decide for me tonight, probably, I think. I think she — clare toeniskoetter Is this your wife? dave hennessey Yeah, that’s my wife. I’ve been torn between Biden and Pete. And I love Joe, and when I’m looking at him, my big reason for leaning towards Joe is I’m dead sure he can beat Trump. He’s convincing me that he can, too.

lisa lerer

He means Buttigieg.

lisa lerer And that’s because of Iowa? dave hennessey Iowa’s was part of it. But the fact that he can think, and I’ve seen it before, I’ve seen him doing this before, being able to talk the way he does so quickly, so fast. He’ll kill Trump in a debate. Absolutely wipe him out. lisa lerer The fact that Pete seems like the winner there — we don’t know — or he did well, is compelling to you. dave hennessey It is compelling. I mean, let’s put the elephant in the room on the table. The fact is, though, there are bigots out there. That moron woman out in — I’m sorry, I shouldn’t say — but the woman out in Iowa who just discovered Pete was gay, and then said she wouldn’t vote for him because the Bible wouldn’t allow it. I mean, there are people like that. Even today, in 2020. I think it’s a problem. I hope to God that that kind of thinking isn’t so widespread that it would cost him the election. But it worries me, because we gotta get Trump out of there. clare toeniskoetter Dave, are you worried about the moderate vote being split between Biden and Buttigieg? dave hennessey To be honest, no. Everybody — I think most people have the same opinion I have — would vote for a rock over Trump. So whoever wins, ultimately, the nominee is going to be anti-Trump. And I think that’s priority one, two, three, four, etc. We gotta beat this guy. He’s a disgrace. He’s awful. All my friends, a lot of my friends who are Republicans are not going to vote for Trump. But I’m afraid they may sit out.

lisa lerer

As we’re talking, Dave’s wife returns.

lisa lerer All right, so the boss is back. alicia hennessey Hi. lisa lerer What do you think? Are you decided? Are you — alicia hennessey I like Pete. I think I’m going to go with Pete. lisa lerer So you’re going to sell him on it. alicia hennessey Might split the vote. dave hennessey We’ve done that before, but — alicia hennessey I mean, I like Joe, too. But he’s just got so much energy.

lisa lerer

Again, by “he,” she means Buttigieg.

dave hennessey To be clear, we both like Amy. We like Amy a lot. lisa lerer So why not go with Amy? dave hennessey Um. alicia hennessey They’re both from the Midwest. dave hennessey Yeah, you’re talking Midwest, and I think Pete just got — and I don’t want to lose her out of the Senate, to be honest. I mean, as close as it is, I think she’s got to stay in the Senate.

lisa lerer

You’ll notice this is not an entirely satisfying answer. Having now talked to a ton of voters, it feels like there’s this thing going on, where a lot of people personally really like Amy Klobuchar, but they sort of assume not enough other people really like Amy Klobuchar. And then we try a version of the moderate question again.

jessica cheung Do you think that it’s more suitable for a moderate, like a Biden or a Pete or a Klobuchar, to go toe-to-toe with Trump? Or do you think a progressive like Bernie Sanders is well suited to go toe-to-toe with Trump? dave hennessey I think it’s valid, but I’m not for Bernie. I know Bernie, I think, pretty well out of Burlington, back when he was mayor of Burlington. Socialism doesn’t scare me and all that. I just don’t think he can get his programs through Congress. I don’t think he can do it. clare toeniskoetter But, are you worried that with the moderate vote being split between Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden, that that fracturing will mean that Sanders ends up winning the nomination? dave hennessey I don’t hear it. Everybody I talk to is saying the same thing. I may be for Bernie, I may be for this and that, but I’ll support anybody who is the nominee for the Democratic Party to beat Trump. That’s what I hear. clare toeniskoetter You’re not worried that — like you two said that you’re going to cancel each other out? So if you vote Biden — dave hennessey But see, I don’t think the —

lisa lerer

At the Buttigieg rally, at least, this is not proving to be a fruitful line of questioning. It’s clear Buttigieg’s performance in Iowa is having an influence on some moderate New Hampshire Democrats. He’s got momentum. But the sort of calculation we’re wondering about, people don’t even seem to process the question we’re asking them. It’s so far outside the way they actually seem to be thinking. So we pack up and head to an Elizabeth Warren rally.

jessica cheung It is so cold!

lisa lerer

Warren seems to be in this funny no man’s land here in New Hampshire. On the one hand, she’s competing with liberal voters for Sanders, but they don’t see her as authentic of a liberal choice. But on the other hand, more moderate voters see her big liberal policies as far too damaging to go up in a general election against Donald Trump.

mary bishop I’m a New Hampshire voter. I have no idea who I’m voting for. nancy Me neither. lisa lerer You’re both totally undecided? nancy Totally. mary bishop Totally. That’s why we’re here. lisa lerer Yeah, you’ve got to listen.

lisa lerer

So you find a lot of undecided people at Warren’s events, trying to figure out what exactly they think.

mary and nancy We’re sisters. lisa lerer Oh, you’re sisters! mary bishop Yeah. You couldn’t tell. lisa lerer No, now I see it. it’s in the eyes. It’s in the eyes. Yeah. sue I’m the friend of the sisters. interposing voices And she’s the friend of the sisters.

lisa lerer

And we meet these sisters, Mary and Nancy, with their friend Sue. They’re all retired, and they’re all really conflicted about what they think about the race.

mary bishop Absolutely. And I’m very concerned, because there are so many Democratic candidates, that the vote is going to be split and Trump is going to get in again. I mean, you can’t have all of those — all of the candidates, to me, have good things and bad things about what they want. lisa lerer Right. mary bishop But when you’ve got five people — actually, there’s more, but — lisa lerer Yeah, five main ones. mary bishop Right. I think the vote is going to be just so split that Trump’s going to get in again.

lisa lerer

So first we’re thinking, OK, here you go. This is the fractured vote thing.

lisa lerer So do you have any preference among those five? mary bishop Oh, I knew you were going to say that. I knew you were. And frankly, I don’t. I like Buttigieg. But sometimes I think he’s so young. He’s very bright, but he’s so young, I’m not sure if experience is what — I mean, look, Trump had no experience at all, but — And who else? Bernie, I don’t know. I don’t — he’s got a good attitude, but I’m just not certain about his policies. lisa lerer So do you think the party needs to unify around someone? mary bishop Yes, absolutely. lisa lerer It’s just who do you do? mary bishop Well, yes. So I’ll wait till New Hampshire and see what they say, and I’ll go from there. lisa lerer But you’re voting in New Hampshire on Tuesday? mary bishop Oh, yes. Oh, absolutely. lisa lerer And you? Are you? nancy I’m undecided. lisa lerer You’re undecided? Everyone’s undecided! nancy I have preferences. I like Elizabeth’s energy. But then again, the fact that Bernie got such a jump said, well, maybe he has more support. Maybe he could beat Trump. So I said, well, maybe he’s better to go with rather than Elizabeth, because he did do so well in Iowa.

lisa lerer

But then we realized, mmm, not quite. There considering Sanders as one of their choices.

nancy And then I wouldn’t — I still don’t think Pete’s the one. So even though he did well — I’m glad he did well.

lisa lerer

So Jess circles back more directly to our favorite question.

jessica cheung One question for you. The question is, do you think that Bernie did really well in Iowa as a result of maybe more moderate candidates splitting up the vote among all the other candidates? nancy Hmm. Oh, that the rest of the vote was divided and so Bernie came out on top. jessica cheung The more moderate voters. nancy Yeah. clare toeniskoetter Because you mentioned that you were worried about fragmentation. Is that something that worries you? nancy Yes, yeah. I never thought about that before. It never occurred to me. I understood, I was thinking like, who’s going to be the moderate versus the progressive and who’s going to take the lead in that, that duel. But um, but I don’t —

lisa lerer

Again, no.

nancy I might, if I vote for a moderate, I could possibly vote for Amy.

lisa lerer

New Hampshire Democrats, like Iowa Democrats, are just looking for a winning candidate. New Hampshire just has a little bit more evidence to go on, because they go second.

nancy I’ve excluded Biden. lisa lerer Why? nancy Um, too old, too out of touch. He is embarrassing. He was very good on CNN last night. He had a town hall. I thought he did very well. But I don’t think he’s — he’s just too old. And — mary bishop Look at the age of these — “He’s too old!” and we’re like, “We’re too old for them to be asking us questions!” [LAUGHS]

lisa lerer

So on Saturday morning, we woke up to a state that looked undeniably aware of what had happened in Iowa. A new poll had just been released that showed Buttigieg surging in New Hampshire and actually polling one point higher than Sanders, at 25 percent. Meanwhile, Biden had plummeted to 11 percent. And at the debate in Manchester the night before —

archived recording (bernie sanders) Unlike some of the folks up here, I don’t have 40 billionaires, Pete, contributing to my campaign [APPLAUSE]. Coming from the pharmaceutical industry —

lisa lerer

Sanders went after Buttigieg.

archived recording (pete buttigieg) We need that kind of unification when our nominee is dividing people with a politics that says if you don’t go all the way to the edge, it doesn’t count. A politics that says it’s my way or the highway. archived recording (george stephanopoulos) Are you talking about Senator Sanders? archived recording (pete buttigieg) Yes.

lisa lerer

Buttigieg went after Sanders.

archived recording (amy klobuchar) We have a newcomer in the White House, and look where it got us. I think having some experience is a good thing. archived recording (linsey davis) Senator Warren, is that a substantial answer from Mayor Buttigieg? archived recording (elizabeth warren) No. [APPLAUSE]

lisa lerer

Everyone went after both of them.

archived recording (george stephanopoulos) Candidates, welcome. Vice President Biden, the first question is for you. In the last few days, you’ve been saying the Democrats would be taking too big a risk if they nominate Senator Sanders or Mayor Buttigieg. But they came out on top in Iowa. What risks did the Iowa Democrats miss?

lisa lerer

And Biden had opened the event by acknowledging the results of Iowa —

archived recording (joe biden) This is a long race. I took a hit in Iowa, and I’ll probably take a hit here. Traditionally, Bernie won by 20 points last time.

lisa lerer

— and basically trying to lower expectations in New Hampshire.

archived recording (joe biden) I’ve always viewed the first four encounters, two primaries and two caucuses, as the starting point. And so that’s how I do it. archived recording (george stephanopoulos) By why are Senator Sanders and Mayor Buttigieg —

lisa lerer

On our way out of the hotel —

lisa lerer Hello. alex burns Hello. interposing voices Hi. alex burns How you doing? lisa lerer Good morning.

lisa lerer

We bumped into our colleague, Alex Burns.

lisa lerer How are you? alex burns Good. How are you? lisa lerer Enjoying New Hampshire? alex burns I have barely left this hotel. lisa lerer Really? alex burns Yeah.

lisa lerer

Who, as usual, was thinking smart thoughts after watching Biden debate the night before.

alex burns This is actually one of the issues for Biden, if he does poorly in New Hampshire, right? That the process in Iowa is so screwed up, even on a good day, that a candidate who loses Iowa can say, OK, that’s not representative of literally anything, right? And they’ve got a pretty good case to make. New Hampshire, it’s not the most diverse state. It’s not a state that terribly well represents the national Democratic coalition. It is a primary election, right? And it is a pretty straightforward process. You can’t say this is this arcane set of hoops that voters need to jump through. So if you do end up with reasonable turnout here, and Biden gets clobbered again, I don’t know that you can write off a second consecutive just really limp finish.

lisa lerer

Not only is New Hampshire harder to explain away. Biden is the candidate whose entire candidacy is staked on being the electable one.

alex burns The bigger picture, right, is that he came into this race as the favorite to win the nomination. He was the front-runner nationally, and he was the front runner in these early states, right? Whatever his campaign is saying now about, you know, never thinking they could win New Hampshire or Iowa is always going to be very tough, he was leading in the polls in these states when he actually announced his campaign. And this is a guy who has presented himself as the one sure bet to win the general election. And his one outcome so far has been a loss, and a pretty embarrassing loss. And by all accounts, from his own team, they’re expecting another loss on Tuesday. lisa lerer Well, I’m going to head out and see Biden today, so we’ll see whether anyone shows up. I’m Lerer. It’s possible I didn’t R.S.V.P. speaker OK. No, you did. lisa lerer Oh, awesome. Good, look at me.

lisa lerer

So across town —

lisa lerer OK, so I’m at this Biden event. It’s in a small theater right in downtown Manchester. He got a pretty good crowd.

lisa lerer

— the turnout was better than we expected.

lisa lerer All the way, the balcony is full. They’re filled the space. They’re even sitting on the stage in front of a sign that says “soul of the nation,” which of course is a Biden slogan. So let’s see how it goes. I’m going to try to find some people to talk to. Hey. Hi, sorry to bother you guys. My name’s Lisa Lerer. I’m from The New York Times. Are you guys New Hampshire voters? interposing voices No, sorry. lisa lerer Oh, where are you from? interposing voices Rhode Island. lisa lerer Oh, cool. All right. I’ll keep going. speaker 1 OK. lisa lerer Nice to meet you.

lisa lerer

But then I started walking around.

lisa lerer You live in New Hampshire now? speaker 2 No, no, Long Island. lisa lerer You’re in Long Island, OK. speaker 3 Good luck finding a resident. interposing voices Right. [LAUGHTER] lisa lerer Where are you from? speaker 4 Boston. lisa lerer You’re from Boston. And you? speaker 5 New York. lisa lerer New York. speaker 6 New York. Michigan. lisa lerer New York. Michigan, you win!

[music]

lisa lerer Where are you from? speaker 7 D.C. speaker 8 California. lisa lerer California! speaker 9 I’m from Canada. lisa lerer Oh, you’re from Canada. Are you from New Hampshire? No. speaker 10 I’m from New York. lisa lerer Oh, you’re from New York. speaker 11 Jersey, Massachusetts. lisa lerer So what are you doing up here? interposing voices Checking it out. Political tourism. Checking it out. speaker 11 As a Times journalist, how do you account for all of us here and no New Hampshirites? speaker 12 This is not good. This is not good. lisa lerer Do you guys — are you Biden fans? speaker 11 No, we’re trying to do an energy check on Joe. And it’s not looking good. lisa lerer Are you New Hampshire voters? speaker 13 No. speaker 14 No, we’re from Rhode Island. lisa lerer Oh. speaker 14 These are also from Rhode Island. speaker 13 They’re all Rhode Islanders. lisa lerer All five of you? speaker 13 Yeah, we’re all together. speaker 14 The girl with the green sweater, the lady after her may be from New Hampshire. lisa lerer Hi, I’m so sorry to bother you. My name’s Lisa Lerer. I’m a reporter with The New York Times. Are you a New Hampshire voter? speaker 15 Yes. lisa lerer Oh, great. You’re the only one in this entire row. speaker 15 Are you serious? Wow. lisa lerer Yeah, I’m serious. Have you seen Biden before? speaker 15 Yes, I did. I think he would be an extremely capable leader, yes. lisa lerer And have you seen Pete? speaker 15 Yes, I have. lisa lerer Thoughts? speaker 15 I think he’s perfectly capable, too. I’ve seen Amy Klobuchar also. speaker 16 I have a more severe approach. I’ll drop a candidate if they don’t have their act together. lisa lerer Do you think Biden has his act together? speaker 16 No, not at present. We both like Joe a lot, but that’s not where we’re going at the present time. lisa lerer Where are you going? speaker 16 I’m going with Bloomberg. Sorry — my wife is going with Bloomberg. I’m going with Buttigieg. lisa lerer OK, cool. speaker 16 Yeah. lisa lerer All right, well, thank you guys. Enjoy it. speaker 16 Yeah, yeah. speaker 17 Good luck, sweetheart. Half of this crowd out here is from someplace else. lisa lerer I have been — I have found two New Hampshire voters so far.

lisa lerer

It turns out, in a year where everybody wants to elect a winner, looking like a winner by winning some states really, really matters. And that’s why Iowa, despite all the chaos, despite all the confusion, is just deeply in the brains of people in New Hampshire.

[music]

michael barbaro

On Monday, in their final push across New Hampshire ahead of today’s primary vote, the Democratic candidates, especially the two leading candidates, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, made the case that the other’s message was a losing one.

archived recording (pete buttigieg) Knowing how much depends on bringing Americans together, we cannot risk alienating Americans at this critical moment. And that’s where I part ways with my friend, Senator Sanders.

michael barbaro