By the end of the town hall gathering, Elizabeth Warren had been quizzed on the spectrum of policy questions, from the implementation of her Medicare for All plan to labor reforms.
Jennifer Cheney had a simpler one. Racism and discrimination had been empowered by the Trump administration, Cheney said. “Do you have a plan to undo this damage?”
Warren seemed to have a ready answer.
“You know, what Donald Trump has done to stir up hate and division in this country is not accidental,” Warren began, addressing the crowd of public servants at a New Hampshire State Employees Union town hall Wednesday. “He actually has a strategy. And the strategy is to turn people against people. Because if you can turn people against people, then nobody notices what’s happening when he is lining his own pockets.”
Then Warren pivoted to what she said the president’s real goal was: enabling corruption.
“It’s every part of it,” she said. “It’s white against black and brown, it’s Christian against Muslim, it’s straight against gay and particularly trans, it’s everybody against immigrants, particularly immigrants of color. It’s all the way through the system.”
The answer was on brand for Warren, whose speeches connect most Washington problems through a common thread of presidential corruption. But to Cheney, it missed the point of her concern.
“I thought that she danced around it,” Cheney, who is black, said in a follow-up interview. “I don’t feel that she answered the question.”
Cheney, a Pittsfield resident, had asked a question informed by her own painful experiences. She was hoping to hear an answer that reflected an understanding of that pain.
“I wanted her to address … all underrepresented and marginalized individuals that have felt a walking back of civil rights protections and the assault of racism and discrimination that are being empowered through this administration. That this matters to her. That these people matter.
“And it’s more than a little something that is dividing us. We’re living its effects.”
It was a rare note of negative voter feedback for Warren, whose events are often characterized by sustained cheers and lengthy “selfie” lines.
But it touched on an age-old question for New Hampshire’s primary process: Should one of the least diverse states in the country continue to act as the gate-keeper in the presidential primary process?
To outsiders, it’s a perennial point of concern – to New Hampshire insiders, a perilous third rail.
Last week, the debate got a fresh burst of oxygen, when presidential candidate Julián Castro voiced strong skepticism of Iowa and New Hampshire’s appropriateness to lead.
“Demographically, it’s not reflective of the U.S. as a whole, certainly not reflective of the Democratic Party, and I believe other states should have their chance,” Castro said.
For critics, the numbers are stark. While Latinos make up 18% of the national population, in New Hampshire, its closer to 4%, according to Census figures from 2018.
Black residents of the U.S. comprise 13% of all Americans, but only 1.7% of Granite Staters. America overall is 76.5% white; New Hampshire is 93.2%.
Castro’s remarks, made a week after the former Housing and Urban Development secretary began shuttering campaign offices in New Hampshire to focus on other states, are the kind of open admission that voters in those early primary states can bristle at.
Other candidates quickly established their distance, praising New Hampshire’s cherished intimacy and pointing to South Carolina and Nevada, the next states on the calendar, as a counterweight for diversity.
For minority voters in New Hampshire, assessing the Granite State’s position in the primary is complicated.
On the one hand, many see room for vast improvement from candidates.
“It’s very frustrating when you know what’s going on in your community, throughout the state, that they don’t reach out to people of color,” said Gloria Timmons, president of the Greater Nashua Area NAACP, referring to presidential candidates. “Like they don’t matter.”
“I know they can do a better job,” Timmons added. “They haven’t done a better job, but I know they can. They can be friendlier.”
On the other hand, Timmons, a longtime political participant, said her qualms with the candidates’ racial awareness don’t extend to the primary itself. New Hampshire has earned its status at the front of the line, she said, its small size fostering accountability and keeping one-to-one voter interactions in the spotlight.
“I think that having New Hampshire remain the first in the nation is a good thing for the entire country,” Timmons said. “(The candidates) just have to reach out more. It’s more their fault than the state for them not reaching out.”
And some candidates have put in effort, Timmons said, highlighting the Warren campaign in particular, which has met with NAACP members.
Sen. Melanie Levesque, a Brookline Democrat and New Hampshire’s first and only African American state senator, agreed.
“We’re all New Hampshire citizens,” she said. “And the microcosm that New Hampshire gives us by having that first in the nation primary is also one that people of color get to participate in. So I would not discount New Hampshire.”
Still, among advocacy groups outside New Hampshire, Castro’s criticisms of the primary order align with long held concerns.
The primacy of Iowa and New Hampshire means white candidates are less likely to be challenged on issues facing minority communities, and candidates of color may be more likely to be overlooked, critics say. This year’s Democratic primary started as one of the most diverse, with seven candidates of color, but so far the top tier of candidates – Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders – have not reflected that.
Latino Victory Fund, a national advocacy group that has endorsed Castro, stands behind his recent controversial take.
The Fund is focused on electing progressive Latino Democrats and championing policy items. That means taking a critical look at the primary order, Executive Director Mayra Macías said in an interview.
“Our country’s demographic has vastly changed since 1972, when the first Iowa caucus was held,” Macías said. Those changes – coupled with Latinos’ status as the largest non-white voting block in 2020 – mean that a focus on diversification is more important than ever.
Presently, the system is primed against Latino inclusion, Macías argued. Candidates fan across the early two states. The media follows suit, capturing and amplifying moments with largely white voters that work to dominate the narrative about campaigns. It’s a chicken-or-egg scenario that leaves Latino and minority group voices largely out of the spotlight until later into the cycle, Macías said. And it incentivizes other candidates to stay quiet about it.
“We commend Secretary Castro for really being bold about the topic that he chooses to engage with,” Macías said. “And this is one that we saw other candidates are just not going to engage. Because why would you, if you’re vying for these votes, potentially criticize the current system?”
It was a point underscored by Warren last week. Responding to a question on the lack of diversity in Iowa and New Hampshire, the senator said: “I’m just a player in the game on this one.” In a follow-up remark in Concord, Warren praised the addition of South Carolina and Nevada for creating a balance, comments echoed by Buttigieg and others.
And the risks were driven home by New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley, who said on Twitter that Castro would be performing better in the state if he had visited more, and that “blaming his campaign’s challenges on the voters of Iowa and New Hampshire is a bit much.”
Still, the effort to diversify the presidential selection process has already had an impact on the primary map over the years.
Since 2008, Nevada, long at the back of the pack, has moved up to the top tier of nominating states, driven in part by an effort to increase diverse voters. And California and Texas have recently edged forward, moving up their early voting windows into February to vie for bigger roles.
Meanwhile, top campaigns say they’ve made efforts to reach out. Sanders has hosted events with New Americans – immigrants of color in population centers in the south – featuring visits by Indian American Congressman Ro Khanna and San Juan, Puerto Rico, mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz.
Buttigieg made a personal visit to the African American Legislative Caucus, and organizers have attended NAACP events and Diwali celebration with the Indian American community, the campaign said. And the Warren campaign has made a presence at NAACP and black student union meetings, and reached out to the Granite State Organizing Project, which represents marginalized communities in Manchester and elsewhere.
But Cheney says whatever’s happening behind the scenes often fails to translate publicly.
“I was actually getting a little frustrated because I often feel that we are not acknowledged,” Cheney said. “And it makes you feel as if they expect you to always bring up concerns of race or discrimination, and that’s not necessarily it.”
It’s a feeling that’s led even Cheney, a proud Granite Stater, to contemplate political sacrifice: giving up the spot at the front of the line.
“There’ve been times that I’ve been angry and that I have supported that,” she said. “And I’m also ambivalent due to the historical factor and my love for the state.”
For now, Cheney said, its up to the candidates to make the corrections.
“I’d like to think about it as the best apology is changed behavior,” she said.
(Ethan DeWitt can be reached at 369-3307, edewitt@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @edewittNH.)