She hails from tropical Hawaii – but Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard is quite comfortable going downhill in the snow.
Gabbard took to the slopes on Tuesday – strapping on her snowboard and shredding it up at Cranmore Mountain Resort in North Conway. The four-term congresswoman, Hawaii National Guard officer and Iraq War veteran was joined by a couple of dozen supporters who entered a contest to ski or snowboard alongside the White House hopeful.
The candidate – who’s spending the vast majority of her time campaigning in New Hampshire – later held a town hall at a lodge at the base of the ski area.
“I’ve been wanting to go snowboarding all winter and try to find the time to do it – we’ve been campaigning every day and so we just brainstormed with the team and said why don’t we go snowboarding,” she told the Monitor in an interview.
While on the slopes, Gabbard was able to chat with some undecided voters who happened to be spending the day skiing and snowboarding at Cranmore.
“We just heard from people that this is a much better way, that they appreciate being able to meet a presidential candidate out and having some fun and going where people are hanging out rather than just the usual traditional political haunts,” she said. “I’m grateful. I had some fun in the process, too.”
The candidate took a few warm-up runs with campaign aides before joining supporters and reporters who covered the campaign event. Gabbard – who didn’t look rusty – said it was her first time snowboarding in two years.
“I’m glad that I was able to find my footing here. It’s been a couple of years since I went snowboarding,” she said.
Gabbard appears to be the first presidential candidate to hit the slopes since former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson went skiing a couple of election cycles ago. Before Johnson, Sen. Gary Hart of Colorado grabbed attention for skiing during the lead up to the New Hampshire primary a decade and a half ago.
Gabbard’s afternoon snowboarding came four weeks after the Hawaii lawmaker went surfing in the frigid Atlantic Ocean waters on New Year’s Day at Hampton Beach.
Considering there’s less than two weeks to go until New Hampshire holds the first primary in the White House race, it’s been relatively quiet on the presidential campaign trail in the Granite State in recent days.
Besides Gabbard, former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick’s stumping in the state this week. On Thursday, he kicked off a bus tour across New Hampshire. But Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado – who’s exclusively campaigning in the state – is back in the nation’s capital serving as a juror six days a week in the U.S. Senate impeachment trial of Republican President Donald Trump.
Bennet’s joined in Washington by 2020 Democratic presidential nomination rivals Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
Meanwhile, with Monday’s Iowa caucuses closing in, former vice president Joe Biden, former South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg, billionaire environmental and progressive advocate Tom Steyer, and tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang are criss-crossing the Hawkeye State.
But that all changes on Tuesday, as Granite Staters will wake up to an invasion by the presidential campaigns and national and international media – for the final eight day sprint towards the first-in-the-nation primary.
New Hampshire Institute of Politics Executive Director Neil Levesque, a presidential primary veteran, foreshadowed what’s coming.
“On Monday night, when Americans are watching their TVs and seeing the returns from Iowa, the candidates will be flying into Manchester and the activity will start in earnest,” he said.” Considering the fact that we’ve had a lull in activity because of the Senate impeachment trial, the campaigning is going to be even more vigorous than it has been in the past.”