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New Hampshire
New Hampshire Primary Voters Can Send Biden a Powerful Message About Gaza
Politics
/
January 18, 2024
A campaign to write in the word “cease-fire” seeks to pressure the administration to shift its policy.
U.S. President Joe Biden returns to the White House December 20, 2023 in Washington, DC.
(Drew Angerer / Getty Images)
Andru Volinsky is a prominent New Hampshire Democrat. He served as a member of the state’s elected Executive Council, and nearly won the race to become the party’s gubernatorial nominee in 2020.
But on Tuesday, when New Hampshire holds its traditional first-in-the-nation presidential primary, Volinsky won’t be voting for President Biden. Instead, he will take his Democratic ballot, find the line for presidential write-ins, and print the word “cease-fire.”
“I’m not interested in replacing Biden,” says Volinsky, who expects that he will be voting for the president in November. “This is about getting a message to Biden about the urgent need for a cease-fire in Gaza.”
Volinsky won’t be alone. A grassroots movement has taken shape in the Granite State, one that’s urging voters in Tuesday’s primary to use their ballot to send a “cease-fire” signal in support of “de-escalation, humanitarian aid to Palestinians, and a just solution to the conflict in the Middle East.”
New Hampshire’s Vote Ceasefire campaign seeks to “draw attention to the urgent need to stop the violence in Palestine and the Middle East,” and let President Biden know that the United States must take action to end the killing in Gaza. And it’s gaining traction.
Current Issue
Organizers have been fielding calls from across the state and around the country. They’re spreading the word on social media and distributing signs that urge voters to take a pen to the polls and register their discontent with the administration’s support of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the brutal assault on Gaza that has left more than 24,000 Palestinians dead, severely wounded tens of thousands and displaced an estimated 1.9 million men, women, and children.
That assault on Gaza, which followed the October 7 Hamas attack on Israeli kibbutzim and a music festival, has sparked an international outcry. In the United States, it has inspired mass demonstrations by American Muslims, Jews, and Christians calling for an end to the violence. It has also sparked significant dissension within Biden’s Democratic Party, as close to 60 members of the House and four Democratic senators have expressed support for a cease-fire.
But the Biden administration has not shifted its stance on the war. It continues to provide military aid for the Israel Defense Forces, as well as to push for Congress to fund additional aid. It’s also kept providing diplomatic cover for Netanyahu’s government at the United Nations. That’s led to frustration in New Hampshire, where Biden will face the first test of his 2024 reelection campaign.
This year’s New Hampshire primary is not sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee, and Biden’s name will not appear on the ballot with those of his most prominent challengers, author and 2020 presidential candidate Marianne Williamson and US Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minnesota. But there’s an active and reasonably well-financed campaign to write in Biden’s name. If there is a substantial anti-Biden vote in the primary, it’s likely to get the president’s attention—and that of Democratic strategists and pundits—at a point when his approval ratings are already low.
So the Vote Ceasefire campaign is seizing the opening. “We have tried to make our voices heard in Washington. We have been ignored,” says Morgan Brown, a New Hampshire activist who was busy organizing efforts to distribute posters, yard signs and flyers urging New Hampshire Democrats to send their message to Biden by writing in “Cease-fire.” “The problem is the Democratic Party only cares about their votes, and that’s why we need to take this to the polls.”
The write-in vote won’t be the only way to send a pro-cease-fire message. Williamson, who for months has been calling for de-escalation and who has made a progressive critique of the Biden administration’s foreign policy central to her candidacy, says the best way to pressure Biden is by backing her, “a candidate who has demanded a ceasefire from the very beginning.” Phillips has also indicated that he’s supportive of a cease-fire.
“I think that the combined votes for the ‘cease-fire’ write-in and for Marianne Williamson could send a powerful message on Tuesday,” says Alan Minsky, the executive director of Progressive Democrats of America. “I don’t know if it will be as big as the Eugene McCarthy ’68 anti-war vote, but people will certainly notice if activists can point to a significant number of votes that were cast in protest against the administration’s approach on Gaza.”
A 1968 challenge to Democratic President Lyndon Johnson by McCarthy, an anti-war senator from Minnesota, drew support from 42 of New Hampshire Democratic primary voters and shocked the political world, beginning a chain of events that would eventually lead to Johnson’s decision to end his reelection bid. Few are predicting that the grassroots Vote Ceasefire campaign, which started late and has almost no money behind it, will get that level of support. But if a significant percentage of New Hampshire voters write in “cease-fire,” it is likely that Vote Ceasefire campaigning will spread beyond the border of the Granite State, says Minsky.
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“I think you could see efforts like this in a number of other primary states,” says the head of PDA, which has historically been one of the most anti-war groupings working within the Democratic Party.
Volinsky says organizers of the New Hampshire campaign have already heard from activists in other states. But, for now, they are focused on spreading the word to New Hampshire voters, and on making sure that the national media takes note if there is a large “cease-fire” vote on Tuesday. To that end, campaigners will be closely monitoring the count of so-called “scattered” write-in votes to ensure that their message is delivered to the White House
“The Biden administration was able to veto the United Nations resolution on a humanitarian cease-fire,” says Volinsky. “But on Tuesday they won’t be able to veto my vote demanding a cease-fire.”
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Investigators partnered with a nonprofit genetic genealogy analysis organization to identify the man who the remains belonged to.
After nearly four decades, a man whose skull was discovered in the New Hampshire woods has been identified.
Warren Kuchinsky was born in 1952 and was last known to be alive in the mid-1970s, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella and New Hampshire State Police Colonel Mark Hall said in a statement. In 1986, his skull was found in a wooded area in the town of Bristol.
At the time, investigators weren’t able to identify whose skull it was, according to officials. Last year, however, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner partnered with the DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit organization, to solve the case using forensic genetic genealogy techniques.
Kuchinsky’s identity was confirmed through DNA testing of a surviving family member, according to officials. There is no evidence that his death was caused by foul play, according to the statement.
Founded in 2017, the DNA Doe Project partners with law enforcement, medical examiners, and volunteer genealogists to apply investigative genealogy to John and Jane Doe cases. By analyzing DNA profiles and building family trees from publicly available genetic databases and historical records, the organization has helped solve more than 250 cases nationwide.
“We are honored to have partnered with the State of New Hampshire on this case,” DNA Doe Project Team Leader Lisa Ivany said in the statement. “Through the power of investigative genetic genealogy and the dedication of our volunteer genealogists, we were able to develop a critical lead in less than 24 hours. We truly hope that this identification brings long-awaited answers to Mr. Kuchinsky’s family.”
Initial DNA testing turned up only distant matches, so the DNA Doe Project selected the case to be worked on at a virtual retreat in May 2025, according to the organization’s case profile. Over the course of a weekend, more than 40 genealogists from the U.S., Canada, England, and Scotland collaborated virtually to work on the case.
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“This identification reflects the power of partnership and scientific advancement,” Formella said in the statement. “The dedication of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the investigative support of the New Hampshire State Police, and the extraordinary work of the DNA Doe Project have restored a name to an individual who had been unidentified for nearly 40 years. We are grateful for their professionalism and commitment.”
New Hampshire
New Hampshire House Advances One of The Nation’s Most Extreme Transgender Bathroom Bans
The proposal would fine transgender people up to $5,000 for using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity.
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Bathroom bans targeting transgender people have been spreading rapidly across the United States. In previous years, adult bathroom bans in public buildings were limited to a handful of states with extreme laws. This year, they have become one of the primary vehicles for anti-trans legislation nationwide. Kansas was the first to act, passing a bathroom bounty hunter system and invalidating transgender people’s IDs. Idaho and Missouri began advancing their own bills. Now, the New Hampshire House of Representatives has passed its own version — one of the most extreme in the United States, which states that a trans person using the bathroom of their gender identity is a crime under the state civil rights act, violations of which carries hefty penalties. The bill passed 181-164 on Wednesday night, just weeks after Governor Kelly Ayotte vetoed a separate bathroom ban. Republicans are now sending her something far more aggressive — raising the question of whether they are trying to move the goalposts or simply daring her to veto again.
“Notwithstanding any other provision of law, with the exception of RSA 21:3, RSA 21:54, and paragraph II below, all multi-user facilities, including bathrooms, restrooms, and locker rooms located in buildings owned, leased, or operated by any municipality shall be used based on the individual’s biological sex,” reads the new bill. This prohibition is expansive: it applies to parks, rest stops, airports, civic buildings, and more, and could leave transgender people struggling to find a public place to use the restroom across the state.
The bill contains a novel enforcement mechanism not seen in any other state. It declares that a transgender person “asserting” that their gender identity allows them to use the bathroom is against the law under the state civil rights act, turning civil rights protections that were meant to be protective of transgender people into a weapon against them. “It shall be unlawful for any person to assert that their gender identity is a sex other than that defined in RSA 21:3 for the purposes of accessing places or services restricted on the basis of sex,” reads the bill. Such violations could result in fines of up to $5,000 per incident and even jail time if a person violates a resulting court injunction by continuing to use the restroom.
The bill also contains provisions for private businesses. It permits any owner or operator of a “place of public accommodation” — a category that under New Hampshire law includes hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, bars, and concert venues — to restrict bathrooms by assigned sex at birth. The bill then immunizes those businesses from discrimination claims: “Adoption or enforcement of a policy pursuant to this section shall not be deemed discrimination under RSA 354-A or any other state law,” it reads.
A separate bill, HB 1217, also passed on Wednesday. That bill permits governmental buildings and businesses to classify bathrooms and locker rooms by assigned sex at birth — similar to the bathroom bans Ayotte has already vetoed. It passed by an even wider margin, 187-163. It contains no enforcement mechanism, but rather, states that bathroom bans and sports bans are not discriminatory towards transgender people under New Hampshire law.
The bills are part of a larger movement towards bathroom bans for transgender people. Just last month, Kansas passed a bathroom ban that allows every citizen in the state to become a bounty hunter, where reporting transgender people in bathrooms can net them $1,000 per trans person caught. This law also invalidated trans people’s drivers licenses in the state. Meanwhile, Idaho and Missouri are both advancing extreme anti-trans bathroom bans of their own, with Idaho’s ban even applying to private businesses, making it against the law for a private business to allow a trans person to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity.
The bills are substantially more extreme than the one vetoed by Governor Ayotte just weeks ago. In a veto statement of a bathroom ban last month, Ayotte stated, “I believe there are important and legitimate privacy and safety concerns raised by biological males using places such as female locker rooms and being placed in female correctional facilities… At the same time, I see that House Bill 148 is overly broad and impractical to enforce, potentially creating an exclusionary environment for some of our citizens.”
It remains unclear why Republicans are pushing an even more extreme version of a bill their own governor has already vetoed three times. The bill still needs to pass the New Hampshire Senate and be signed by Ayotte to become law. One possibility is that the more extreme HB 1442 is designed as cover for HB 1217 — making that bill appear moderate by comparison and improving its chances of earning a signature. Another is that Republicans believe they can pressure Ayotte into signing, or are simply laying the groundwork for an override attempt down the line. Regardless, HB 1442 is one of the most extreme bathroom bans moving through any state legislature in the country, and transgender people across New England will be watching closely as it advances to the Senate.
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