Biden returns to NH after no-show primary

President Joe Biden will visit New Hampshire for the first time in nearly two years on Monday, when he will attempt to sway the same Granite State voters he effectively snubbed during this year’s first-in-the-nation primary.

Biden, according to the White House, will be in town to deliver a speech and meet with supporters of his bid for a second term.

“On Monday, March 11, the President will travel to Manchester, New Hampshire. The President will deliver remarks on lowering costs for American families. Later, the President will participate in a campaign event,” the White House announced. No further details were available.

Biden was last seen in New Hampshire in the spring of 2022, about a year before he’d made his intentions to seek reelection official, when he was in Portsmouth touting his Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Even after his April 2023 announcement that he would make another run for the White House, the sitting president and presumed Democratic nominee didn’t make the trip to the Granite State for a single campaign event or party fundraiser. He wasn’t even on the primary ballot.

The president’s campaign and the New Hampshire Democratic Party made clear Biden’s absence on the party ticket wasn’t a matter of disagreement between the president and the state, but rather an uneasy solution to a mess caused by the national party machine which sought to put South Carolina first in the primary calendar.

New Hampshire law says the state must hold its primary first. The state party, unable to change the law, was told their delegates might be left out of consideration at the Democratic National Convention if they held their primary before South Carolina.

Biden’s campaign, looking to avoid a fight, instead chose to just leave his name out of the running in New Hampshire and comply with the DNC. At the same time, his campaign said the president would not forget about the Granite State.

“The president looks forward to having his name on New Hampshire’s general election ballot as the nominee of the Democratic Party after officially securing the nomination at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, where he will tirelessly campaign to earn every single vote in the Granite State next November,” Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the 46th president’s campaign manager wrote to NHDP Chairman Ray Buckley.

Biden went on to win the primary anyway, securing about 64% of the vote and beating U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, author Marianne Williamson, and perennial candidate Vermin Supreme via a grass-roots backed write in effort.

Ahead of his return to New Hampshire, the president released a new campaign ad over the weekend, in which he acknowledges his advanced age but asks voters to compare his record to his presumptive opponent, former President Donald Trump.

“Look, I’m not a young guy. That’s no secret,” a smiling Biden says to start the ad. “But here’s the deal: I know how to get things done for the American people.”

The advertisement is part of a $30 million Biden-Harris campaign spring media buy aimed at voters in the key swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, according to the campaign.

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