On the Monday before New Hampshire’s Democratic primaries, supporters of Rep. Tulsi Gabbard were on nearly every corner of Manchester’s main drag, handing out fliers and beckoning passers-by to a Town Hall event around the corner at which she spoke.
One of those, Alison Erwin, of Portland, Oregon, said she has been a supporter of Gabbard and a campaign volunteer since the beginning of her campaign.
“I want to get us out of wars in the Middle East, and I want the American people to know the truth about those wars,” Erwin said. “And Tulsi is the only one telling the truth.”
“None of the other candidates have shown that they’re willing to go up against the military industrial complex as strongly as she is."
Gabbard, a Democratic Congresswoman from Hawaii and presidential candidate, has not maintained a high profile in the national media. She last appeared in a presidential debate in December and as of yet failed to gain much traction in the polls — which have her hovering around one or two percent nationally.
But she does seem to have a larger footprint in New Hampshire.
“Her objective is to bring people together," said Bert Hurwitz, a volunteer from New York City. "She doesn’t say if someone is different, has a different view that you just eliminate them and ignore them."
He added that he had received positive reactions from many Trump supporters who walked by and that that is part of Gabbard’s strength.
Hurwitz also said he was not concerned about her low poll numbers.
“New Hampshire has much to say on Tuesday and I think that that lower place in the polls is going to be shown to be an illusion,” he said.
Residents and volunteers around the state — from its wealthier suburban communities in the south, to the rural areas of the White Mountains in the north and in urban Manchester — planted Gabbard signs in street flower-holders, along highway embankments, plastered on the walls of local shops and vacant storefronts.
Some recent polls showed Gabbard holding steady at about four or five percent support statewide.
Gabbard went so far as to move to New Hampshire, reportedly renting a house in a Manchester, in December.
The veteran who served two tours of duty in Iraq and Kuwait has made the heart of her campaign a promise to end what she calls needless military interventions around the world, or "regime change wars."
The message, combined with her record of military service, appeared to be reaching some voters who described Gabbard as the only Democratic candidate who has a firm grip on what they see as America's various failed military actions around the world.
Outside a Shaw’s supermarket in the middle-class southern New Hampshire suburb of Milford, John Krass said he intends to vote Republican and had no interest in any of the Democratic candidates — except Gabbard.
“Tulsi, she’s more down to earth, she served our country,” Krass said. "If she won I’d be happy.
Ed Wilke, a Milford resident who’s voting Democratic, was less enthusiastic about Gabbard — but agreed she has more traction in the Granite State than nationally.
“She’s around a lot more and she’s one of the few that I’ve seen," he said. "But I don’t really understand why she’s in it because she has almost no chance."
I n and around rural Tamworth, at the southern edge of the White Mountains, signs for Gabbard were not uncommon — signs for two of her competitors, Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, significantly outnumbered them.
At Saint Anselm College, senior Caroline Chlebeck was happy to talk about the large Tulsi sign outside her housing unit on campus.
“You see her [signs] posted everywhere,” around Manchester, she said.
“A lot of people, especially in New Hampshire are in the military or know someone who is,” noted Chlebeck, who is from Massachusetts and whose brother served as a U.S. Marine. “I feel like there’s a certain kind of respect you have to have for someone who [made] the decision to serve their country."
