Elizabeth Warren returned to New Hampshire Friday evening, pitching her vision for the United States to a crowd of about 300 people at the Common Man restaurant in downtown Claremont.
It was the third consecutive weekend that Warren, who launched a presidential exploratory committee Dec. 31, visited a state with an outsized role in the 2020 presidential cycle. On Jan. 12, she held an organizing event in Manchester and attended a house party in Concord. The previous weekend, she held five public events around Iowa.
In form and content, Warren’s event in Claremont resembled other events she’s held on behalf of her presumed presidential candidacy, with a brief speech followed by a Q-and-A and selfies with members of the audience.
In her remarks, Warren joked about being a “surprise” for her parents, and not understanding what that meant until she was 30. She recounted a financially precarious childhood during which her mother saved the family home by getting a minimum wage job at Sears. And she said that Washington, D.C., currently works well for a small, well-connected elite rather than the American people as a whole — a dynamic she described as “corruption” which cries out for “big, structural change.”
“It’s one set of rules for the rich, and a very different set of rules for everyone else,” Warren said. “Well, you know? Here’s the deal: In a democracy, we can change that, and that’s why we’re here tonight. That’s why we’re here.”
Also familiar, from other events in this stage of Warren’s nascent candidacy: palpable enthusiasm at the prospect of her seeking the White House, tempered by an unwillingness to commit to her candidacy just yet.
“She's an amazing woman, and she's bringing me hope,” Claremont resident Doni Fontaine said of Warren. “Back when the stock market crashed and she stepped up, I was really impressed with her opinions, and what she wanted to do to fix things.
“Yes, if there was an election tomorrow, she'd be my choice for president,” Fontaine added. “But that's tomorrow. We still have to wait and see.”
Meghan Hoskins of Portsmouth said she was interested in Warren’s message on healthcare, adding that her mother is a diabetic who pays $1000 a month for insulin. She also praised Warren’s take on climate change.
But, she added, “There’s going to be a lot of candidates. … She’s definitely in my top three.” Rounding out Hoskins' list were California Sen. Kamala Harris and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
During the Q-and-A session, Warren didn’t directly answer an audience member who asked whether she’d be willing to provide the border-wall funding requested by President Trump in exchange for an immigration deal that gave permanent protections to so-called “Dreamers” — individuals brought illegally to the U.S. as youth by their families — and reopened the government.
“We need to open the government, and we need to open the government now,” Warren said. “That’s it. We need to open the government.
“And let’s keep in mind: If Trump is too stubborn to open the government, Mitch McConnell has the power right now just to call a vote in the United States Senate — and the overwhelming majority of senators, Democrat and Republican, had already voted to fund the government in December,” she added. “We can pass that same bill and make it happen.”
An aid from Warren's exploratory committee later said that Warren would not strike the deal the audience member proposed.
Asked by another attendee how she plans to actually win the presidency, Warren joked: “Man! Right on the first date!”
Then, after saying she doesn’t have a grand campaign strategy worked out, Warren cited a biographical detail that’s already campaign staple: She has three brothers, only one of whom is a Democrat and she believes people across the political spectrum are united on certain core values.
“When we talk about the things we really care about, partisan politics aren’t so important,” Warren said.
Claremont is part of Sullivan County, which Donald Trump narrowly won in 2016. It’s also a city where Bernie Sanders crushed Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. Asked in the press gaggle afterward whether her appearance here signals a determination to woo working-class voters, she didn’t say yes — but didn’t say no, either.
“This is a place where the decisions made in Washington make a real difference on the ground,” Warren said.
