MERRIMACK, N.H. – Unlike a normal election season, this year has seen a marked difference between the two major parties when it comes to how to approach campaigning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, that difference may be slowly changing.
Last week, supporters of Congressman Chris Pappas and other gathered at the home of Chuck Mower, a former Merrimack selectman and long-time supporter of Democratic candidates in town.
In a normal year, the meeting would have blended in with any of the other dozens of kick-offs to door-to-door campaigning pushes that occur during election season. But this marked a slow renewal of door-to-door campaigning for Democrats as Election Day draws closer, something they had eschewed completely in previous weeks.
That earlier approach of forgoing door-to-door campaigning in favor of reaching out to voters through phone calls, text messages, the internet, and other social distanced campaign methods marked a sharp contrast with New Hampshire Republicans, who have made face-to-face contact at voters’ homes a key component of their strategy during the pandemic.
Although the Democrats return to door-to-door campaigning, launching from kick-off events like that one across the state, in Merrimack the focus was on dropping off literature at doors rather than talking to voters.
For volunteers at the site such as Wendy Thomas, a Democratic State Representative from Merrimack, that distinction is a vital one. Like countless people campaigning on both sides, Thomas feels that winning the election and the country’s subsequent approach to the pandemic after the election ends will be vital to America. However, she also understands the need to balance that desire with how she approaches the pandemic right now and her concern for members of her community.
“Even our literature drops are no contact. I can’t plead with people to vote absentee to protect their health and then go knock on doors, it doesn’t make sense. My campaign is important, but the health of the people I represent is more important,” she said. “We’re all campaigning a lot more online than before. But we’re in the middle of a pandemic, people are dying. We can’t lose that point. It’s dangerous for people to go door to door.”
Pappas believes that that contactless door-to-door campaigning such as what was done that day in Merrimack represents a new way to keep the balance Democrats have tried to hold between spreading their message and preventing the spread of COVID-19.
“I think the support for Democratic candidates is really strong across New Hampshire. Everywhere I go, people are out, signs are out, and this is just another way we can channel that information in the right direction and make sure everybody gets out there and votes,” said Pappas.
Former Trump Campaign Manager Corey Lewandowski belittled the Democrats’ change of approach in an event later in the week featuring South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. He also added that the numerous in-person events from President Trump and other surrogates have been a stark contrast from Joe Biden’s lack of a visit to New Hampshire since becoming the Democratic nominee.
“It’s about time they started to campaign,” he said. “We’ve knocked on tens or hundreds of thousands of doors in this state. We’re asking people for their vote and we’re reminding them what this President has done for the people of New Hampshire, and they’re going to remember that on Election Day.”
For New Hampshire Democratic Party Communications Director Holly Shulman, the contrast between the two parties’ philosophies on this matter extends to Democrats’ focus on building relationships and Republicans’ focus on limiting the importance of the pandemic.
“Our grassroots-based organizing has been decisive in victories for years because of these relationships – not because we knocked on someone’s door one time or we had our base come to a large event. This is a persuasion campaign, and when we’re focused on differences on the issues, we always win. This allows us to do that 100 percent” she said. “The sad truth is that New Hampshire Republicans’ entire campaign strategy is to pretend that there never was a pandemic and that’s what’s driving their campaign tactics. NH GOP is desperately trying to pull the fleece over Granite Staters’ eyes and pretend that the pandemic never happened, that it hasn’t killed more than 200,000 Americans or devastated the economy – because people not acknowledging the facts in front of their eyes is Trump’s only path to victory.”