“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 Gov. Kelly Ayotte has a point.

Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, especially when it comes to criminal illegal immigration.

Or, as Republican Ayotte put it to Massachusetts Democrat Gov. Maura Healey — “Get your own house in order, Maura.”

The flap was over Healey’s “demand” that Ayotte reject a proposed Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) regional Granite State site to house detained illegal immigrants, criminal and otherwise.

The empty warehouse facility in Merrimack near the Massachusetts border would be converted into a 400-bed detention facility – one of several large-scale facilities the agency is planning to erect across the country.

“This is outrageous and absolutely the wrong move for New Hampshire,” Healey said. Healey, born in Maryland, grew up in Hampton Falls, N.H.

Ayotte in effect told Healey to mind her own business, which is to run Massachusetts, not New Hampshire.

Besides, many of the criminal illegal immigrants to be temporarily housed at the New Hampshire facility will likely be from Massachusetts, having been waved into the country by Joe Biden and into the state by Healey.

And while Massachusetts is not an official sanctuary state —although Boston is — under Healey, Massachusetts acts like one.

And the state’s generous benefits — originally designed for Massachusetts residents — have made the state a haven for illegal immigrants who flocked to the state seeking these freebies which, of course, cost Massachusetts taxpayers billions.

So It is no wonder that Healey is opposed to cutting the state income tax from from 5% to 4%, which will be on the 2026 ballot for voter consideration.

She needs the money to pay for those benefits.

Massachusetts has been a good deal for illegal immigrants. It is also why they have not descended on New Hampshire which, to say the least, is not as generous to illegal immigrants as is Massachusetts. New Hampshire has no sanctuary cities.

And, unlike Massachusetts, New Hampshire supports local police officials cooperating with ICE.

Illegal immigrants in Massachusetts are protected from ICE. If left-wing judges are not letting them evade ICE from the back door of  courthouses, Healey is seeking to outright ban ICE from the courthouses.

She says ICE is made up of “rogue” agents who are breaking the law and causing “devastation” and “harm.” She has joined the chorus of Democrats calling for its defunding.

If Healey were so concerned about law enforcement officials breaking the law, she would also call for the defunding of the Massachusetts State Police. More state cops have been sent to prison under her watch than ICE agents.

All the while Healey has “demanded” that fellow Gov. Ayotte “do everything in her power to block a new ICE facility in New Hampshire.”

Of the demand, Ayotte told the Globe, “New England is in this position because Governor Healey and Massachusetts created a billion-dollar illegal immigrant crisis in our region.”

There is no love lost between the two governors.

Healey went to extraordinary efforts to defeat Ayotte in the last gubernatorial election. She raised money and actively campaigned in New Hampshire for Ayotte’s progressive Democrat opponent Joyce Craig, the former mayor of Manchester, who lost.

Ayotte’s campaign slogan was: “Don’t MASS up New Hampshire.”

Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas can be reached at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com.

Two people were rushed to the hospital with carbon monoxide poisoning after an incident at a condominium building in Plymouth, New Hampshire, on Wednesday.

Plymouth Fire Rescue said they were called to building on Tenney Brook Road around 4 a.m. for reports of people feeling sick. Firefighters logged CO readings over 500 parts per million (PPM) in the unit – a level considered “immediately dangerous to life and health.”

According to the EPA, a reading above nine parts per million is considered unsafe for an eight-hour exposure, and anything over 35 parts per million is considered unsafe after one hour.

Off-duty first responders were called in to assist at the scene. Fire crews removed two people from the home and evacuated the remaining five units of the building. Two residents were transported to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

The source of the CO was tracked to an on-demand water heater, though the exact cause of the leak remains under investigation. Firefighters shut off the gas and ventilated the building until readings were back to zero parts per million.

CO is a colorless, odorless, gas and exposure can be fatal. Residents are urged to have working CO detectors in their homes.

Early signs of CO poisoning include headache, nausea, dizziness, and disorientation. If you suspect a CO leak or if your CO detector goes off, get outside and call 911.