Back in January, a group of passionate New Hampshire Democrats stood out in the freezing winter for hours, getting honked at and holding signs for a Joe Biden write-in campaign that ultimately had no impact on the primary season or general election.
If any group of people might be angry or reluctant that Kamala Harris is now the party’s nominee, it would be them. But they’re not angry.
That’s “so in the rearview mirror,” Peter Lovett, a member of the New Hampshire state House, told NOTUS of the hours he spent going above and beyond for Biden. “I moved on from that.”
New Hampshire is a politically complicated and important state. While Democrats have won in presidential elections going back to 2000, when George W. Bush beat Al Gore, the margins are often close. The state has a Republican governor with a Republican-controlled Legislature.
The volunteers at the Biden write-in events were mostly retirees, with an average age somewhere in the late 60s or early 70s. They were politically engaged, and many had run for local office or participated in the party at the local level.
Pissing off a group of the party’s most dedicated organizers — who were already sort of mad at the DNC for trying to take away their first-in-the-nation primary — could have been a fiasco, but it looks like the Harris campaign has dodged a bullet.
That ole write-in campaign? That was just a thing these Democrats felt they had to do — or at least that’s how hindsight is working out for these former Biden volunteers.
“I just felt it was just one more thing that I felt like I should be at, and it was important to be at,” Nancy Dowey, a Bristol, New Hampshire, resident, said of the Biden write-in campaign. “I didn’t feel it was like a life-changing event or massively important.”
Bill Bolton, also a member of the state House, referred to the write-in as “just a necessary task that we had to do,” but also said that “I don’t regret participating in it.”
Some are so over the Biden write-in campaign era that they’re now saying Harris is the stronger Democratic candidate.
“The contrast between her and Trump is just amazing; talk about feeling like an old man,” said Joyce Weston, who leads the Plymouth-area Democrats and helped organize write-in events in the area. “In some ways, yes, I do prefer her because I think the contrast is really working in our favor.”
“We think that Kamala Harris is going to eat Trump for lunch,” Buz Kenney, a Plymouth-area resident, said.
Residents told NOTUS that now, and back during the primaries, while they supported Biden, the write-in was really about standing up to Donald Trump. Like many Democrats across the country, after the debate, they were no longer sure Biden could stand up to Trump.
“Obviously, the debate was the moment of truth,” Lovett said. “I couldn’t listen to much of the debate, but the first part I did, and I was like, I can’t hang in with this. This was really troublesome.”
“I was enthusiastic about him, but I was beginning, prior to the debate, I was beginning to have doubts about his viability against Trump,” Kenney said. “The debate just cemented my concerns.”
Even Dowey, who would have stuck by Biden, was shaken.
“I did feel like that the election was going to be just about his age. It wasn’t going to be about discussing his policies,” she said. “If that’s all people are going to focus on instead of what you’re saying, I thought it was good that he dropped out.”
But their relief to have a new name at the top of the ticket doesn’t mean they’ve forgotten about good ole Joe.
“I felt sad for him, but I think that he has had, I studied political science and American history in college, and I think he’s had one of the most amazing careers of national public service of anyone in history,” Kenney said. “Most of the Democrats that I know are kind of bittersweet, but we’re very excited that Kamala Harris is our candidate.”
Once again, there’s work to be done.
“I’m feeling pretty confident but trying not to be cocky,” Weston said. “We got a lot of work to do, so that’s what we’re doing now.”
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Casey Murray is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.