Gabbard planning on a New Hampshire Christmas

Democratic presidential hopeful Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii is planning on a white Christmas in New Hampshire this year.

Gabbard was campaigning in Jaffrey and Peterborough Friday and Saturday visiting businesses, pubs and and taverns in both towns, talking to voters at a Jaffrey house party Friday night and taking in the Festival of Light Lantern Parade in Peterborough Saturday night.

The Monadnock Ledger-Transcript caught up with Gabbard at the at the Lab ‘n Lager tavern in Jaffrey Friday night, after her Jaffrey house party, where she was talking one-on-one with voters about her campaign.

Gabbard said she and her husband are renting a house in Goffstown where, after a visit to South Carolina this week, they will gather with their parents to celebrate the holidays.

“We’ll have a nice white Christmas for a change,” Gabbard said.

She said she started at mid-morning on Friday in downtown Peterborough stopping in shops and restaurants to talk with business owners and their patrons, introducing herself, listening to what they had to say and answering their questions. “I had a blast,” she said.

Friday night she spoke to voters at a house party in Jaffrey, which got a much bigger turn out than expected, especially considering the slushy road conditions caused by Friday’s snowfall.

“We had a full house, again, it shows there is a lot of interest. Some people came already supporters, but I think most people came because they were curious – they didn’t know a lot about me, but we left with a lot of support from a lot of people that made their decision tonight that they are going to vote for me,” Gabbard said.

Gabbard said she didn’t start out the race with a great deal of name recognition and she is running with a small campaign budget so retail politics and local volunteer support are key to her success.

“We are a very low-budget, lean campaign, which creates the challenge to be able to get our message out to people. It’s also our opportunity, because again, the more I get to know people the more they get to know me the more our support grows.”

“We have a very lean, fiscally responsible campaign and we’re focusing, continuing to focus on direct voter outreach and we’re thankfully seeing our polling numbers and our support moving in the right direction,” Gabbard said. “Where as other campaigns, like hers, may have seen a strong start, but seen that support wane and move elsewhere. Me and my campaign are kind of taking the tortoise approach in the tortoise and hare race here and we’re taking this campaign all the way to the convention.”

Gabbard has been criticized for attracting voters who voted for President Donald Trump in 2016. Gabbard said she met many voters at the Jaffrey house party who voted for Trump and she doesn’t see their support for her now as a negative for her campaign. 

“They had different reasons for doing it. And I’ve convinced them to vote for me in the primary and the general election. I think it’s odd that some Democrats criticize me or say, ‘Oh that’s weird, how are you able to win over Trump voters.’ If we want to win and beat Trump, we’ve got to win over people who voted for Trump and we’ve got to give people who stayed home a reason to come out and vote and that is exactly what we are doing.”

“For the job of the presidency the most important responsibility is to serve as Commander and Chief of the armed services,” Gabbard said. “And I think there should be more focus on this for every candidate. What kind of experience and understanding in international security and foreign policy that we all bring to this job and to this responsibility. So, I’ve made this a central focus of my campaign. Other campaigns have not. I’ve been very clear and strong in the kind of foreign policy I would lead with in ending the regime change war, dictator toppling policies that have been so costly and counter productive to our country’s national security. I’ve been very outspoken about how we’d need to work to deescalate tensions between the United States and other nuclear armed countries – and this new Cold War and nuclear arms race – and redirect our taxpayer’s dollars to serving the many and urgent and pressing needs of people in our communities here at home.”

While Gabbard said she supported starting the impeachment inquiry in Congress because she saw valid issues raised in the whistleblower complaint she is yet undecided on impeachment, saying she is still going through what came out of the House Intelligence Committee report. However, she said, the speed at which the inquiry has progressed so far give her pause.

“It’s progressed quickly,” Gabbard said of the impeachment inquiry. “Long before this impeachment inquiry began I’ve been pretty outspoken about my concerns about a highly partisan driven impeachment effort that for some people began right after Trump got elected. And how pursuing that would be very divisive for our country. And would set a very dangerous precedent that if the losing party is unhappy with the outcome of the election then we’ll end up in this cycle of perpetual impeachment and the ones who lose the most on that is the people. And it threatens really the core of our democracy – where whether you win or you lose you respect the outcome of the election and you work like hell to beat the guy or gal in the next election.”

She is also concerned about the impeachment inquiry’s continued partisanship.

“Especially given the fact that there is still not a single Republican stepping forward based on the evidence that has been brought forward. So, I’m still looking at this, again, impeachment is no small matter and wherever we are on this we have to do what’s best for the country and that’s the context that I’m viewing this through.”