In New Hampshire, Pete Buttigieg is not an underdog anymore

Recent polls in New Hampshire put him in second place, after Bernie Sanders.

By OMRI NAHMIAS
Pete Buttigieg speaks in New Hampshire ahead of primaries in 2020 (photo credit: OMRI NAHMIAS)
Pete Buttigieg speaks in New Hampshire ahead of primaries in 2020
(photo credit: OMRI NAHMIAS)
SALEM, New Hampshire – The kids on the after-school basketball team played against another team on Sunday evening, and their parents were rooting for them from the sidelines. To avoid confusion, a note on the door clarified that Pete Buttigieg, the presidential hopeful, was speaking at the larger gym of the local high school.
Some 650 people showed up to watch him ahead of the Democratic primary that will take place here on Tuesday. The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, ended up winning Iowa with a slim margin against all odds. Now, he arrives here as a top-tier candidate, not as an underdog.
Recent polls in New Hampshire put him in second place after Bernie Sanders. Suddenly, finishing in third place might seem like a failure for him. Former vice president Joe Biden and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren are losing momentum, and according to recent polls, they are expected to finish in the third and fourth place, respectively.
Sherry Ritter, an invoicing clerk for a medical billing company from Salem, New Hampshire, told The Jerusalem Post she decided to support Buttigieg because he is younger than the other candidates.
“I think I’m going to be voting for Pete,” she said. “I like the fact that he’s younger. He seems very well-spoken and [has] thought things through.”
“I think he has a better chance than any of them,” Ritter said. “Joe Biden, I think, was hurt a lot by this whole impeachment thing with the investigations of the son and everything. And Bernie Sanders, not that I don’t love his ideas – free college and free this and that. I don’t think they’re very realistic. And I think with the issues we have from [US President Donald] Trump the last three years, we have to sort of get back to more normalcy before we try to go [to the] extreme the other way.”
Mark Standish, a bank appraiser in residential real estate from Pelham, New Hampshire, told the Post that he is convinced he will vote for Buttigieg.
“A young man came to my door earlier, and suggested and invited me to come,” he said. “I’ve been interested to learn more about this candidate, and this was a perfect and easy opportunity to do that. I think that the most important thing is this is a generational change that he represents.”
Senator Amy Klobuchar, another candidate who has gained momentum over the past few days, spoke at a different school, some 80 meters from Buttigieg’s rally. She told the crowd she had raised $3 million in the last three days since the recent democratic debate.
Klobuchar hopes to pass Warren and Biden and finish third.
Sarah Sigel, a retired teacher from Manchester, New Hampshire, and attorney Richard Sigel, came to watch Klobuchar “one more time” after watching her on four other occasions.
“We feel really good about her,” Sarah Sigel told the Post. “She’s very down to earth. She gets people. She understands the average American middle class. She is a problem solver, and she gets things done.” She said she is convinced Klobuchar could beat Trump “because she’s not far Left. She’s moderate centrist, and she can bring people from both sides together.”
Richard Sigel said: “New Hampshire people are taking a long, hard look at Amy because they know that she is the kind of candidate that can win ’cause of her record of winning – that she’s got a record of accomplishment, being the most accomplished senator in the US Senate. She’s got the ability to bring our country together – Democrats, independents and disaffected Republicans. That’s a coalition that we need [in order] to win.”
“In the Democratic primary here, independents can come in and vote, and there are more independents in this state than there are Democrats or Republicans,” he said. “And since there isn’t really a primary on the Republican side, those independents are going to be coming into the Democratic primary, and they’re going to be looking for a candidate who very much fits the profile of Amy.”


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