2020 Primary

In their effort to woo voters before next month’s primary, Democratic Presidential candidates have come out with an array of policy plans, including ones to revitalize the rural United States. NHPR’s Sarah Gibson has been looking at what these plans might mean for rural New Hampshire and talking to voters about their concerns.

The Exchange sat down with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders on Sunday, Jan. 19, before a live audience to discuss the Senator's views on Medicare for All, gun policy, foreign policy and other issues on voters' minds this election cycle. 

Sanders, who won the 2016 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary by a large margin, finds himself in a close race for the 2020 contest. He was recently endorsed again by the SEA SEIU Local 1984, one of the largest labor unions in the Granite State. 

This week we saw the latest, smallest, and whitest Democratic debate of the cycle. How'd it go? And with the Iowa caucuses just weeks away, who has the momentum, how are candidates ramping up their door-to-door campaigning, and where does the Senate impeachment trial fit in?

Original air date:  Friday, January 17, 2020

  Democratic presidential hopefuls are campaigning all over New Hampshire, and they’re spending a lot of time in areas once considered Republican strongholds. The candidates are hoping to capitalize on a demographic shift underway in rural New Hampshire that could have big political implications.

Some of the Democratic candidates running for president this year are banking on a myth.

It’s a famous one: That New Hampshire gives little known candidates a real chance at the White House.

But in 2020, is there still any truth to that?

Like many other New Hampshire communities, the city of Franklin has tried for decades to recover from a lost mill economy resulting in an aging population, struggling schools, and a downtown with lots of vacant storefronts.

The state’s smallest and one of its poorest cities has ambitious plans for growth, making it an appealing backdrop for candidates in the 2020 presidential primary race. 

But how well are these candidates, who are promising to restore the nation, addressing the issues that matter most to Franklin?

We begin our Jan. 13 show  with U.S. Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado.  A former Superintendent of Schools in Denver and co-sponsor of the Green New Deal, with a keen interest also in immigration reform, Bennet is running on a platform that includes a public option for helath care, expanding tax credits for the middle class, and repairing the country's infrastructure.   

On a rainy, grey Saturday in January, hundreds filled the gym at Stevens High School in Claremont to see one of the leading Democratic candidates, South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg.

As volunteers handed out signs for people to wave and music blared, I walked around, looking for voters to talk with. 

A recent poll from CBS news finds that voters in New Hampshire see former Vice President Joe Biden as the Democrat most likely to defeat President Trump in 2020. But he's also the Democrat who generates the lowest level of excitement among supporters.

Voters still considering Biden appear to be navigating that apparent contradiction in the final weeks of the primary race.

Washington's escalating conflict and crisis with Iran has become a central focus of the presidential race. Voters are expressing concern, and the Democratic candidates are talking about it on the campaign trail in New Hampshire.

College students from around the country are in Manchester this week as part of College Convention 2020, and they're hearing pitches from several presidential candidates. The event is hosted by New England College.

How would an extra $12,000 a year change your lifestyle? Your life? The centerpiece of Andrew Yang’s presidential campaign is something he dubs the Freedom Dividend: a payment of $1,000, every month, to every adult in America. 

Affordable housing isn't an issue getting a lot of attention in presidential campaign advertisements, on cable news or on the debate stage. But it is a topic with relevance to New Hampshire, a state with an incredibly tight rental market and a shortage of affordable housing options.