Clutching a “DeSantis for President” yard sign, Tracey Burg was ecstatic after taking a picture with the Florida governor at a town hall in Hollis Tuesday. 

“I got a picture with him!” she exclaimed. “I told him, ‘You were awesome, and you’re so handsome, and I’m gonna be knocking on doors for you!’” 

Burg, a Massachusetts resident who drove up for the Ron DeSantis event, said she supported Trump in the last election.

“Trump, I love him, but he’s too controversial,” she said. “My whole family is Democrats and can’t stand me because I liked Trump.” 

Talk of the former president dominated among attendees of DeSantis’ town hall, in part because the Republican front-runner was campaigning a few miles north at a luncheon with the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women in Concord. 

DeSantis’ campaign angered some members of the GOP women’s group by scheduling his town hall around the same time as their Trump event. The group complained that DeSantis was trying to steal the spotlight. For better or worse, DeSantis made it on stage earlier in the day than Trump.

DeSantis took sharp aim at the former president when asked about people who had twice voted for Trump over his promises to “drain the swamp.” 

“He didn’t drain it. It’s worse today than it’s ever been,” DeSantis said. “I want to break the swamp.” 

DeSantis has trailed Trump since entering the race in May. He is polling second at 26% among Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters nationwide, according to a recent CNN poll. In New Hampshire, most polls place him under 20%. 

Gail Sprangers, who said she attended a Trump event in the last election cycle, drove to the event with friend Susan Channell.

“I like what Trump stands for, but I think sometimes he shoots himself in the foot with his demeanor,” Sprangers said. “DeSantis seems to stand for a lot of the same things, but he has a cooler head about him. He’s a grown-up.” 

Channell agreed. “DeSantis is a no-nonsense guy, he lets his own mind guide him and he doesn’t put up with foolishness. I really like that about him.” 

Standing before a sign that read “Restore sanity,” DeSantis spoke about key policy issues on which he and his opponent share similar views.

On immigration, he said, “This is humiliating as a country to not even be able to control your own territory, your own border...to cede the border to Mexican drug cartels and allow tens of thousands of Americans to be poisoned with impunity.” 

He spoke extensively of the new immigration policy he released Monday, which aligns with many of Trump’s plans. “We’re going to stop the invasion, we’re going to fight the cartels, yes, we are actually going to build the wall, and we’re going to restore the sovereignty of this country,” he said, drawing cheers from the crowd.

“A lot of politicians chirp. They make grandiose promises and then fail to deliver the actual results,” DeSantis said of Trump. “The time for excuses is over.”

DeSantis also spoke about “wokeness” and parental rights, calling the education system a “failure” that indoctrinates students. The governor has championed parental rights and school choice initiatives in Florida and hopes to extend those policies nationwide. The message resonated with many attendees, as a parental rights bill failed to pass the New Hampshire House of Representatives in March. 

After his speech, DeSantis took audience questions, a trademark of New Hampshire politics that he conspicuously skipped during his last visit to the state. Trump, meanwhile, offered his traditional, free-wheeling speech for more than an hour but didn't take questions.  

Fifteen-year-old Quinn Mitchell asked DeSantis about the pro-Trump mob that overran the U.S. Capitol in January 2021 during the certification of Biden’s 2020 victory. 

“If it’s about relitigating things that happened two or three years ago, we’re going to lose,” DeSantis said. 

Despite DeSantis’ performance, some attendees were not confident in his ability to overtake the former president in the New Hampshire primary. 

“He’s a very smart guy, but will he win over the Trump voters?” mused Bob Beckett,  who lives in New Castle. “I don’t think so.” 

(Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.)

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