Welcome to On the Trail, the Monitor’s weekly look at all the action along the Granite State campaign trail. Our inaugural edition comes with less than three weeks to go until November’s elections. And once the midterms are over, the 2020 race for the White House officially gets underway in the state that for a century has held the first presidential primary.
Look for this column each Friday in the Monitor and on concordmonitor.com.
Sen. Cory Booker, the high profile Democrat from New Jersey, is Granite State bound. After trips to three of the four early voting states in the presidential primary and caucus calendar – Nevada in late August, Iowa earlier this month, and South Carolina this week – Booker will stop in New Hampshire next Sunday, Oct. 28. It’s another sign that Booker appears to be gearing up for a run for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The senator will be in Durham to headline a get-out-the-vote event at the University of New Hampshire that’s being organized by the NH Young Democrats. The Young Democrats president Lucas Meyer tells the Monitor that they invited Booker to headline event and he accepted. Meyer explained that he’s thrilled to have “one our party’s most effective and inspiring messengers come here to help us turn out the youth vote and support the over 50 Young Democrats running for office.”
More stops are expected to be added to Booker’s New Hampshire itinerary.
Booker last spoke to a large crowd of New Hampshire Democrats when he addressed the state’s delegation to the 2016 Democratic convention in Philadelphia.
Michael Avenatti is headed back to New Hampshire on Monday. The Los Angeles-based attorney, best known for representing adult-film actress Stormy Daniels the past year in her lawsuit against President Donald Trump, will be in Lebanon at 6 p.m. to headline an Upper Valley Democrats get-out-the-vote event and potluck dinner. This will be the third trip since August by Avenatti to the first-in-the-nation primary state. In his previous visit to the Granite State, Avenatti said that he’s “absolutely being serious” as he mulls a run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.
Avenatti told the Monitor on Thursday that he’s “looking forward” to the upcoming visit. And he explained that he might add more events to his itinerary for Monday.
WATCH: Avenatti, in a late September interview with The Daily Beast, WKXL radio in Concord, and the Monitor, said his mulling of a White House run is “not about ego.” bit.ly/2pZud5G
Former San Antonio, Texas, Mayor Julian Castro returns to the Granite State on Wednesday, for his third trip to New Hampshire this year.
The Housing and Urban Development Secretary under President Barack Obama made headlines earlier this week by saying he’s “likely” to run for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“I’m likely to do it,” Castro said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “I’m inclined to do it.”
Asked about those comments, Castro told the Monitor and WKXL radio in an interview on Wednesday that “I want to be straight forward with folks on where I am in terms of making a decision.”
When it comes to a timetable, he explained that “I’ll make a decision after Nov. 6.”
That’s the date of the midterm elections.
“Right after that, I’m going to make a decision about 2020,” he added.
The Monitor has learned that while he’s here next week, Castro will be the guest of honor at a house party in Nashua with the New Hampshire Young Democrats. The event’s being held at the home of Democratic state representative candidate Greg Indruk.
As previously reported, Castro will attend an afternoon “community conversation” at Casa Mezcal in Nashua that is being hosted by the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s Latino Caucus.
Later, he’ll be the keynote speaker at the Salem Democratic Town Committee’s Fall Gala, at the Birch Wood Vineyards in Derry.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York campaigned Thursday with Democratic gubernatorial nominee Molly Kelly, to highlight the importance of paid family leave. The two met with employees at Granite State Candy in downtown Concord, to discuss how implementing a paid family and medical leave plan would benefit them. Gillibrand’s the lead sponsor of a paid family leave bill in the Senate. And Kelly’s spotlighted the issue in recent weeks as she’s criticized Republican Gov. Chris Sununu’s threat to veto earlier this year, which sidetracked a bipartisan paid family and medical leave bill in the state Senate after the measure passed through the state House of Representatives.
The trip is sparking more 2020 speculation about Gillibrand, who’s considered a potential Democratic White House hopeful.
Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe pays his first visit this cycle to New Hampshire on Saturday. McAuliffe has a jam-packed itinerary, which kicks off with a Laconia canvassing event with Molly Kelly.
McAuliffe, a former DNC chair and close friend of Hillary and Bill Clinton – who’s mulling a White House bid of his own, later speaks at canvassing kickoffs in Manchester and Nashua before stopping by a Democratic phone bank in Salem.
A nonpartisan live operator poll in New Hampshire’s top three races.
A new nonpartisan survey from the Saint Anselm College Survey Center released Wednesday indicated Gov. Chris Sununu leading Kelly by 10 percentage points with just under three weeks to go until Election Day.
According to the poll, Sununu topped Kelly 48.6 percent to 38.6 percent among registered voters, with Libertarian nominee Jilletta Jarvis at 0.9 percent. Nearly 12 percent of those questioned were undecided.
The Saint Anselm College poll indicated executive councilor and Democratic nominee Chris Pappas leading Republican nominee Eddie Edwards 44 percent to 36 percent in the 1st Congressional District race to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter. And the survey also indicated three-term Democratic incumbent Rep. Annie Kuster topping GOP challenger and state Rep. Steve Negron, 49 percent to 22 percent, in the 2nd District race.
Another key metric in the race for the corner office is campaign cash, and this week we received new figures on where the campaigns stand when it comes to fundraising.
The Sununu and Kelly gubernatorial campaigns filed their latest fundraising reports Wednesday. The Kelly campaign highlighted that they outraised the Sununu campaign during the Sept. 11 to Oct. 15 filing period by around $235,000. But the Sununu campaign pointed to the cash-on-hand figures, which indicate the governor has slightly more than a $200,000 advantage over Kelly when it comes to the amount of cash in the bank.
The most recent congressional fundraising filings indicate Pappas with a three-to-one cash-on-hand advantage over Edwards as of Oct.1. And Kuster entered the month with $1.93 million cash on hand, compared to just $33,225 for Negron.
Kuster headlines a Plymouth canvass launch on Saturday at 1 p.m. at 91 Main St. On Sunday, she’ll attend a Berlin canvass launch at 10 a.m. at 171 Main St.
Negron will make the rounds Saturday at 8 a.m. at the Manchester Gun Show. The event’s being held at the Manchester Downtown Hotel at 700 Elm St. At 10:45 a.m. he’ll attend the Milford GOP’s candidate meet and greet, at 168 Elm St. Later, he’ll show up at a Hollis GOP pep rally and meet and greet. The event’s at 3 p.m. at the Lawrence Barn Community Center at 28 Depot Road. On Sunday morning, Negron will attend the Southern New Hampshire Jewish Men’s Club Political Forum. The event starts at 9 a.m. at Temple Beth Abraham, 4 Raymond St. in Nashua.
Eddie Edwards will be in Hooksett at 11 a.m. on Saturday for the New Hampshire Day of Action with Log Cabin Republicans, New Hampshire Young Republicans, and the New Hampshire College Republicans. The event’s at Robie’s Country Store at 9 Riverside St. Later, at 12:15 p.m., Edwards will attend the Manchester Gun Show. On Sunday, he’ll speak at the Southern New Hampshire Jewish Men’s Club Political Forum at 9:45 a.m. At noon, he’ll campaign with state Sen. Regina Birdsell at a tailgate fundraiser at La Carreta Mexican Restaurant at 44 Nashua Road in Londonderry.
Chris Pappas will campaign Saturday at 10 a.m. at the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s coordinated campaign office in Merrimack. Then he’s off to the party’s campaign office in Exeter, where he’ll talk to volunteers at 1 p.m. On Sunday, Pappas will join the Hampton Democrats for their Fall Meet the Candidates event.
Molly Kelly will launch a Laconia canvass kickoff with organizers and volunteers on Saturday morning. Later she’ll speak at the State Employees Association annual conference in Laconia. The union recently endorsed Kelly’s bid for governor.
Gov. Chris Sununu’s campaign schedule was not available as of Thursday afternoon.