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New Hampshire
Pete Buttigieg stumps with Chris Pappas and other N.H. Democrats, fueling speculation about 2028 presidential race – The Boston Globe
“I voted for you last year,” one man said, as he gave Pappas a firm handshake.
“I might ask you to do it again this year,” Pappas replied.
“It’s going to happen,” the man added. “I hate Trump.”
Pappas has a commanding lead in the contested Democratic primary. He also appears to be ahead, albeit by a narrower margin, in hypothetical matchups with John E. Sununu and Scott Brown, the two contenders for the Republican nomination.
Sununu, whose family is seen as a political dynasty in New Hampshire, secured President Trump’s endorsement earlier this month. That further strengthens his position in the GOP primary, though it poses a potential challenge for the general election, since Trump’s job approval rating remains underwater in New Hampshire.
While the Trump administration’s sweeping crackdown on immigrants has been a point of contention nationwide, the topic has become especially urgent in New Hampshire in recent weeks. State and local leaders have struggled to get clear answers from the federal government about plans to convert an industrial warehouse in Merrimack, N.H., into a regional processing center where US Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to hold 400 to 600 detainees at a time, as part of a nationwide network of new detention centers.
When asked about the warehouse, Buttigieg noted that Republicans have joined in pushing back on plans for such facilities in New Hampshire and elsewhere.
“We all understand and accept the importance of proper immigration law and enforcement, but a campaign of mass incarceration and terror is not what most Americans believe is the right thing to do,” he said. “And I think the bipartisan resistance to this facility shows that.”
Pappas said he is eager to support legislation to end the partial government shutdown that’s impacting parts of the US Department of Homeland Security, but he wants to see additional guardrails on ICE, such as requiring warrants and deescalation training and ensuring officers identify themselves.
“This shouldn’t be about political leverage. It should be about getting the job done,” Pappas said. “And if we will see legislation come to the floor of the House, I want to make sure those accountability measures are in place, in addition to proper funding.”
Buttigieg said he came to New Hampshire because he is traveling around the country elevating causes and candidates worth supporting. He praised Pappas and New Hampshire in the same breath.
“I’ve seen his pragmatic style that’s very much characteristic of this state,” Buttigieg said, “and I also think he represents a welcome generational opportunity to have new voices in a more modern Senate.”
Buttigieg, 44, is popular among Democrats in New Hampshire. He finished second in the state’s presidential primary in 2020, which helped him climb from his prior job as mayor of South Bend, Ind., to a cabinet-level post overseeing the US Department of Transportation under former president Joe Biden.
His prior campaign experience was evident on Thursday, as some of the restaurant patrons regaled him with stories recalling the first time they had met him and his husband, Chasten, in 2019 at the house parties and meet-and-greet events for which the New Hampshire primary is known.
Buttigieg said campaigning in New Hampshire ahead of the 2020 primary made him a stronger candidate and influenced his views on presidential politics.
“I think it’s critically important for candidates on the national stage to have to have that experience of slowing down and talking to people in small communities, in intimate settings,” he said, “and New Hampshire is full of people who take their civic responsibility as an early state seriously.”
Looking ahead to the 2028 presidential race, Buttigieg ranks among the favorite potential candidates for likely Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire, according to early polling. Data that the University of New Hampshire Survey Center released Thursday showed Buttigieg in the lead at 20 percent, followed by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and California Governor Gavin Newsom at 15 percent apiece, then former vice president Kamala Harris and Senator Mark Kelly at 10 percent apiece.
Andrew Smith, director of the UNH Survey Center, said Buttigieg’s activity in New Hampshire is a strong sign of his potential aspirations to launch another presidential bid. If that’s the case, then stumping alongside Pappas and others is a good opportunity to build connections and support among the politically engaged Granite Staters who would be interested in working for the 2028 campaign, he said.
Smith said the latest data on potential Republican candidates show Vice President JD Vance is the clear front-runner for the GOP’s 2028 primary in New Hampshire, which signals Vance is also well-positioned to win his party’s nomination. But there is no front-runner in the Democratic contest.
“There’s no clear leader here,” Smith said. “There is an open field.”
Buttigieg is far from the only potential presidential hopeful making noteworthy visits to New Hampshire. Newsom and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear are each expected to visit in early March, and several others — including Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and senators Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, and Ruben Gallego — have made similar treks in recent months.
After visiting with Pappas in Manchester on Thursday afternoon, Buttigieg attended a community conversation Thursday evening with Representative Maggie Goodlander in Nashua. He’s expected to join local leaders in Concord on Friday morning, then deliver a speech at Dartmouth College on Friday evening, before joining local organizers for an event on Saturday.
Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter.
New Hampshire
Possible 2028 Democratic White House contenders weigh in on Iran with New Hampshire voters
As the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran overtakes the foreign policy debate in Washington, two Democratic governors with potential 2028 presidential aspirations — Gavin Newsom and Andy Beshear — recently traveled to New Hampshire, introducing themselves to the state’s famously engaged voters. The two weighed in on the war and both criticized and questioned President Trump’s strategy and endgame.
“If a president is going to take a country into war, and risk the lives of American troops and Americans in the region, he has to have a real justification and not one that seems to change every five to 10 hours,” Beshear told CBS News after a Democratic fundraiser in Keene.
“This President seems to use force before ever trying diplomacy, and he has a duty to sell it to the American people and to address Congress with it,” Beshear continued. “He hasn’t done any of that. In fact, it appears there isn’t even a plan for what success looks like. He’s gone from regime change to strategic objectives and now is talking about unconditional surrender, which isn’t realistic where he is.”
Beshear also said he thought that Congress should have reined in Mr. Trump’s war powers.
“He is trying to ignore Congress. He’s trying to even ignore the American people,” Beshear said.
He went on to note that the president’s State of the Union address took place “three — four days before he launched this attack,” and Mr. Trump “didn’t even have the respect to tell the American people the threat that he thought Iran posed to us.”
Last week, both the House and the Senate failed to pass resolutions to limit Mr. Trump’s war powers and stop him from taking further military action against Iran without congressional support.
For Newsom, the war with Iran constitutes part of a broader criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At an event last Tuesday in Los Angeles, Newsom had compared Israel to an “apartheid state.” Later, in New Hampshire, he sought to clarify his comment.
“I was specifically referring to a Tom Friedman [New York Times] column last week, where Tom used that word of apartheid as it relates to the direction Bibi is going, particularly on the annexation of the West Bank,” Newsom explained during a book tour event Thursday night in Portsmouth. “I’m very angry, with what he is doing and why he’s doing it, what he’s going to ultimately try to do to the Supreme Court there, what he’s trying to do to save his own political career.”
Friedman wrote that at the same time that the U.S. and Israel are prosecuting a war in Iran, within Israel, Netanyahu’s government has undertaken efforts to annex the West Bank, driving Palestinians from their homes; fire the attorney general who is leading the prosecution against Netanyahu for corruption; and block the government’s attempt to establish a commission to examine the failures that led up to the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Jews by Hamas.
CBS News has reached out to the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.
On Iran, Newsom said, “I’m very angry about this war, with all due respect, you know, not because I’m angry the supreme leader is dead. Quite the contrary. I’m not naive about the last 37 years of his reign. Forty-seven years since ’79 — the revolution,” Newsom said. “But I’m also mindful that you have a president who still is inarticulate and incapable of giving us the rationale of why? Why now? What’s the endgame?”
Many attendees at Newsom’s book event said that the situation in Iran is a top-of-mind issue for them, too. Some said they’re “horrified” by what is happening.
29-year-old Alicia Marr told CBS News she decided to attend Newsom’s event because of his social media response to the war with Iran.
“There was one spot left, and I decided to pick it up, and it was due to his response to the war, that it is just unacceptable, and I would agree with that,” Marr said.
While some voters like Marr are eager to hear about where potential candidates stand on foreign policy, many at Newsom’s event said they care most about how potential candidates plan to address domestic issues.
“I’m more focused on getting the middle class back on track and fighting the oligarchy, and I’m less invested in international issues,” said Anita Alden, who also attended Newsom’s event,
“I wouldn’t call myself America first, but we have so many problems at home that are my priority,” she told CBS News.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who may also be weighing another White House bid, told Fox 2 Detroit last week that she “unequivocally opposes” the Trump administration’s military action in Iran and urged Congress to take action.
“If we want to stop Donald Trump with this random decision that he has arrived at, then Congress must act, and Congress must act immediately. The American people do not want our sons and daughters to go into this unauthorized war of choice,” Harris said.
Mr. Trump has lashed out against Democrats who have pushed back on his Iran strategy, calling them “losers” last week and arguing that they would criticize any decision he made on Iran.
“If I did it, it’s no good. If I didn’t do it, they would have said the opposite, that you should have done this,” the president said.
Local News
Police say the Attleboro man was driving 104 mph in a 55 mph zone on Route 202 near in Rindge, New Hampshire.
A Massachusetts man was arrested late Wednesday night after police say he was driving more than 100 mph on a New Hampshire roadway.
Officers with the Rindge Police Department stopped a vehicle shortly after 11 p.m. on Route 202 near Sears Drive in Rindge following a report of a car traveling at excessive speed, according to a statement from Chief Rachel Malynowski.
The vehicle, a 2020 Kia Stinger, was spotted traveling at 104 mph in a posted 55 mph zone, Malynowski said.
The driver, a 21-year-old man from Attleboro, was arrested and charged with reckless operation of a motor vehicle, according to police.
He is scheduled to be arraigned April 5. If convicted, the man faces a fine of at least $750, in addition to the court’s penalty assessment, and a 90-day license suspension, Malynowski said.
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