But the visit will also give her a chance to support Democrats in a purple state that was stripped of its first-in-the-nation status earlier this year and perhaps ward off the ghost of Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 presidential run.
Democrats have stressed they welcome Harris’s visit to the state after last month’s convention in Chicago and ahead of the presidential debate against Trump next week.
“We are just so excited, but that’s because we’re Democrats,” New Hampshire Democratic state Sen. David Watters told the Washington Examiner. “She believes that Democrats should ask for every vote and understand what’s at stake for our democracy, and this is an important state for that.”
Harris is expected to propose a tenfold expansion of the small business tax deduction for startup expenses, from $5,000 to $50,000, according to a campaign official, to meet the need for the average cost of starting a business at $40,000. She will also propose policies that cut red tape to make it easier for small business owners to file taxes and reduce barriers to getting occupational licenses.
The vice president is also expected to set a goal of 25 million new small business applications in her first four years of office, which will surpass the 19 million applications set under the Biden administration. This comes after Harris’s first economic proposals were released last month, which included cutting taxes for the middle class and reducing grocery costs.
“The message now about working families, about the middle class, and particularly about small businesses, New Hampshire is just really an ideal place for that message,” said Watters. “So that’s why she’s back.”
Other New Hampshire experts suggested Harris’s visit may have to do with the drama surrounding the state after President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee stripped the Granite State of its first-place status in the primary calendar.
However, New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan defied the wishes of the Democratic Party and set the primary on Jan. 23, 2024, ahead of South Carolina’s primary, due to a 1975 law requiring New Hampshire to hold the nation’s first primary. Biden declined to compete in the race, and allies staged a successful write-in campaign.
“It’s a state that is going to have a very competitive gubernatorial race, and she may want to build some points here if she wins in 2024 and wants to seek reelection in 2028,” said Linda Fowler, a political scientist at Dartmouth University, about Harris’s visit. “The Democratic Party here was very angry with Biden because we lost our first-in-the-nation status. So I think this may be politics in the sense of restoring ties with a local party.”
Watters was a key leader in the Biden write-in campaign and claimed that state Democrats were no longer angered by loss of status even during the primary.
“I really think even at the time of the primary, those tensions were all gone, and we felt very good about that effort,” he said.
“And frankly, I think that the reason why our delegation met that very day that President Biden made his decision (to suspend his campaign) and unanimously voted to endorse Harris was that we understand the extraordinary work that the president did, but also that Vice President Harris—all the conversations in the weeks before that moment had been that she really is our strongest candidate,” Watters continued.
Others claimed Harris’s visit to New Hampshire, along with her running mate’s, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), campaigning in Virginia, was an attempt to distance herself from Clinton’s decision not to visit Wisconsin during the 2016 campaign when she lost to Trump.
“I think that they’re scared of the ghost of Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin,” said Sean Spicer, a former Trump White House press secretary, during The Morning Meeting. “I have a feeling that they’d rather be making the case that they’re expanding the map and that they’re keeping things off the board.”
Trump took to Truth Social on Tuesday to slam Harris’s arrival in New Hampshire, her economic policies while serving as vice president, and Democrats devaluing the state in its primary schedule.
“Comrade Kamala Harris sees there are problems for her campaign in New Hampshire because of the fact that they disrespected it in their primary and never showed up,” he wrote. “Additionally, the cost of living in New Hampshire is through the roof, their energy bills are some of highest in the country, and their housing market is the most unaffordable in history. I protected New Hampshire’s First-In-The-Nation Primary and ALWAYS will!”
Christopher Galdieri, a political scientist at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, suggested that Harris’s visit is a move to shore up support in a race that a handful of states will decide.
“We are sort of at the top of the second tier of battleground states. We’re not where we were in, say, 2008 (or) 2012,” said Galdieri. “But I think it’s just making sure you make the appearance. She has not been here as the nominee, so I think it’s also useful for her to visit the state for that reason as well.”
A volunteer for the Trump campaign was let go from his post after he stated New Hampshire was not winnable for the GOP.
According to the Boston Globe, Tom Mountain, who is a former Massachusetts Republican Party vice chairman, emailed Trump campaign volunteers claiming that “the campaign has determined that New Hampshire is no longer a battleground state” and that Trump is “sure to lose by an even higher margin” in New Hampshire than in 2016 and 2020. Mountain also pointed to Pennsylvania as a state more deserving of resources.
A 538 poll average of New Hampshire shows Harris leading Trump by roughly seven percentage points, 50.1% to 43.2%, while a RealClearPolitics poll average also shows Harris leading Trump by five percentage points, 50.7% to 45.7%. The Cook Political Report also rates the state as “likely Democratic.”
“New Hampshire has what I think is probably a very favorable electorate for Harris,” said Galdieri. “It is lots of upscale, highly educated, white voters. So I think it’s a very particular segment of the Democratic electorate. So I think it’s going to be pretty friendly territory.”
Throughout the state, Democrats have amassed more than 100 campaign staffers across 17 coordinated field offices, compared to the one field office the Trump campaign has opened.
In a similar trend found across other battleground states, Democrats in New Hampshire saw a 415% increase in event attendees and a 480% increase in volunteer shifts after Harris replaced Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee.
Although Trump easily won the New Hampshire GOP primary earlier this year, it remained a top state in which Republican Nikki Haley attempted to stage her comeback against the former president. Trump defeated Haley by 11 percentage points, 54.3% to 43.3%.
Those same disaffected Haley voters could defect for Harris come November in addition to the Republicans for Harris group that has started in the state. Former Republican Rep. Joe Walsh stumped for the Harris campaign last week in the state.
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With just a little over 60 days until Election Day, time is scarce for Harris and Trump, but a visit to New Hampshire is still beneficial, said Fowler.
“So there are two things going on here. One is to expand the playing field, make the Republicans fight for everything,” said Fowler. “And the other is to not take states that look like they’re in the blue column — not take those for granted.”