Lucille Ketchum had never heard of Marianne Williamson. But as a registered Democrat looking for an alternative to President Joe Biden, she may have found her candidate at the Puritan Backroom in Manchester while having lunch with her husband on Friday afternoon.

It’s the chance encounter, and the type of one-on-one conversation between voter and candidate that’s at the core of the New Hampshire presidential primary. When Williamson took a seat next to Ketchum, 82, she had her ear.

William’s pitch is straightforward and doesn’t involve other Democrats who may or may not be on the state’s primary – she is running to beat former President Donald Trump, she said. So is Dean Phillips, a U.S. Congressman from Minnesota, who has self-funded millions to support his campaign for the Democratic nomination, which he launched in October.

“I don’t come here with animus towards Joe Biden,” Phillips said to a packed house at the Brother’s Cortado coffee shop in Concord on Friday. “I do come here with animus towards Donald Trump.”

Ahead of primary voting Tuesday, Williamson and Phillips made their final pitch to voters across the Granite State. As the primary parade descended on the state this weekend, Biden remained nowhere to be found.

Biden will not appear on Tuesday’s ballot, after a year-long standoff with state and party leaders over the primary order. By DNC orders, South Carolina, which Biden won in 2020, will hold the first party-sanctioned primary next month. And while some Democrats are encouraging voters to participate in a grassroots write-in campaign to make sure the president still wins New Hampshire, Ketchum, who is a lifelong Democrat and voted for Biden previously, said she would not write in his name.

“I want to know more,” Ketchum said about Williamson. “It’s time for new blood.”

Phillips is quick to capitalize on Biden’s absence in the state. Despite low turnout at some events and one fated meet-and-greet week at a New England College-sponsored political convention in Manchester where no students showed up, he drew a crowd in Concord on Friday afternoon.

At 81 years old, Biden is running a campaign that opens the door for Trump to reclaim the presidency, said Phillips, who turned 55 on Saturday.

“The truth is this: Joe Biden is making a horrific error right now and staying around a little too long,” he said. “Joe Biden is a good man, but he will not beat the most dangerous man in the world.”

Still, Biden’s the first name that comes to mind for longtime voters like Valerie Hardy, 76, a lifelong Democrat from Litchfield. After working on Democratic campaigns for three decades – and never missing an election day while doing so – there’s no hesitation when she said she will write in Biden’s name on Tuesday.

But as Williamson went table to table in Manchester on Friday afternoon, it reminded Hardy of her favorite part of living in the state during an election cycle. At a table across the restaurant, she’d met Caroline Kennedy. Long before Barack Obama was the Democratic nominee and became president, she met him and Michelle Obama at a New Hampshire house party.

Williamson, a popular author who was once the “spiritual advisor” to Oprah Winfrey, handed out flyers and asked restaurant-goers to visit her weekend events. She may have convinced Hardy’s husband, Tim, 74, to consider an alternative.

After Biden decided to skip New Hampshire, it’s harder for Tim Hardy to consider a vote for him. Instead, he wishes Biden would pass the torch to someone younger – like California Gov. Gavin Newsom or Beto O’Rourke from Texas.

“I think Biden could have said no,” he said.

Even if they are unsuccessful on Tuesday, Williamson and Phillips have engaged with voters about the future of the Democratic Party.

“I think he’s got certainly got a future whether it might be ahead of his time right now,” Tim Hardy said about Phillips.

Williamson had a hypothetical for voters to consider – two women facing off against each other in the general election.

When David Woetzel, 58, told her he was a registered Republican and planning to vote for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, she knew she couldn’t count on his vote. But she presented herself as a candidate, who like Haley, wants to defeat Trump.

“Why don’t you do me a favor, visualize that it’s her and me,” said Williamson. “Wouldn’t that be good for America? Two women.”

Woetzel’s support for Haley is rooted in her stances on immigration, abortion and foreign policy. If it came to it, he’d vote for Trump. But regardless of party, he’d like to see anyone but Biden take office in November.

“I want someone who is qualified,” he said. “And Joe’s not.”

On stage in Concord, Phillips asked students in the crowd to raise their hands. As the majority of the room put their hands up – including a student group from Temple University in Philadelphia – he promised them a country based on hope, where young people are prioritized and universal healthcare is a reality.

Jaden Gdowik voted for Trump in 2020. But after hearing Phillips with his Temple peers, he would consider a new candidate this year.

“I agree with him on prescription drugs. I agree with him on gun control. I think that he could be the one person to bring this country together. Possibly, if he makes it to the general election, which I certainly hope he does,” he said of Phillips. “I know it’s going to be tough.”

Time and time again, politicians have promised better outcomes for all Americans – regardless of zip code, race or age, said Phillips. But with every new leader, these promises remain unkept, he continued.

He’s a child of the Vietnam War – with his father killed in combat when he was 6 months old. But his success story as a self-made millionaire and elected official, should not be an anomaly, he said.

Phillips has sat with Trump. He’s joined the Problem Solver Caucus in Congress. And the Concord crowd clapped when he talked about hosting dinners with bipartisan colleagues in Washington D.C.

Last year, when former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney was running to maintain her House seat in Wyoming, Phillips took to the camera in an advertisement for her. And as Cheney stood against her party in defiance of Trump and the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, Phillips said he too is standing up to his party now to change the course of the country’s future.

“We all know Joe Biden is in decline. We all know that Joe Biden is a good man, but his poll numbers are horrifying,” he said. “So I decided I am going to give up my career in Congress. I am going to do what Liz Cheney did.”

That change starts with the state of New Hampshire, he said, reminding voters that days prior, the attorney general’s office issued a cease and desist letter to the Democratic National Committee after they called the Jan. 23 primary “meaningless.”

“I don’t know about you all, but I don’t think that’s so cool to take that from you. So I decided I like to come here and campaign to make sure it sticks with you. Better than that, I think the rest of our country shouldn’t be taking that from you,” he said. “There is not a state in the country that practices democracy like the Granite State.”