This month, the New Hampshire Democratic Party began in earnest with a task force looking at why Granite State Democrats won all the federal races, but lost the state races, with similar results to the 2016 presidential election.

There’s one race that doesn’t require a task force to analyze but is important for us all to understand: the governor’s race. Here’s what happened: 1) Big money in politics; and 2) Sununu’s slick press conferences creating the (false) perception that he is doing a good job on COVID.

The sad reality is, for several months, New Hampshire has had much worse numbers across the board than either Maine or Vermont, a worst-in-the-nation crisis in nursing homes, and Sununu’s initial claim that the general public could all be vaccinated in January is clearly far from true. Nevertheless, with an assist from the WMUR news channel, Sununu’s near daily pressers vaulted him from the mid-50s in approval to over 80%.

To pile on, the Republican Governors Association spent several million dollars in corporate special interest money to support Sununu’s re-election to a third term, almost all of which were false attack ads both online and on TV against Democrat Dan Feltes. Strikingly, the Republican Governors Association spent more than 20 times the amount they spent in the 2018 governor’s race in New Hampshire, making attacking Dan Feltes a top priority.

By stark contrast, state and national Democratic Party organizations spent comparatively little money at all in the final month to help Dan; the state Democratic Party ran four Facebook ad campaigns (out of 17 launched in that month) on the governor’s race. In the state Senate for six years, Dan accomplished more for our state than even close observers of the Legislature realize: He worked tirelessly, was adept at working across party lines, and routinely allowed others, including Sununu, to take credit in order to get things done. That’s true public service. In the face of millions of dollars of false attacks, Dan ran an impressive, inspiring, and issues-focused campaign, elevating what mattered most to working families and senior citizens struggling right now. And, as a young dad to two amazing daughters and the youngest majority leader in the history of New Hampshire’s Senate, Dan represented the future.

We Democrats must ask ourselves: What does it say about a Democratic Party that abandons someone like Dan in the final month of a campaign? What does it say to people like me, one of the tens of thousands of individual contributors of financial resources and volunteer time to Dan’s campaign? Not much that is confidence inspiring.

There’s a simple lesson. If the Democratic Party wants to invest in the future of our party, or have a shot at winning the governor’s race, then it must walk the walk, not just talk the talk. Tweets and press releases alone are no substitute for meaningfully investing in the future of our party. Change is needed, now. Donors, activists, and aspiring public servants want to see a New Hampshire Democratic Party organization that cares even half as much as they do about the future of our state.

If we had more Democrats in local and state government, our families, friends, and neighbors would be stronger and safer than we are right now.

(Leah Plunkett is a lifelong Democrat and a former candidate for Executive Council in District 2. She lives in Concord with her family.)