TAMWORTH, N.H. — At the base of the White Mountains, the little town is about in the middle of New Hampshire, and its politics are about in the middle as well. In 2016, 761 residents cast their votes for Donald Trump for president, and 739 cast their votes for Hillary Clinton.
Ahead of Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, Tamworth remained a place divided, and very much undecided, in part because more than a third of the town’s voters were not registered with a party.
“You’ve got an awful lot of people who just will not declare [a party affiliation] one way or another, until they’re ready, if at all,” said Ellen Farnum, vice-chair of the Tamworth Democratic committee. “They’re just going to vote how they’re going to vote.”
In the most recent general election, the town had 465 Democrats and 543 Republicans registered in its books, Farnum said.
“But the greatest number of all is 824 unaffiliated voters,” she said. “So that’s what makes being in Tamworth a really interesting place to vote and talk politics.”
Nestled between the White Mountains and more liberal communities to the north and Republican strongholds to the south reaching down through much of the state, Tamworth seems at times to be a kind of border-town of political ideologies.
At either end of main street are the town's two churches: The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Eastern Slopes on one side; and the Tamworth Congregational Church at the other.
On a recent frigid Sunday, as congregants left services at both churches, it was clear that the Unitarians tended Democratic and the Congregationalists skewed more Republican.
Leaving the Unitarian church, Mary and George Dominguez, of nearby Moultonborough, said they will vote in the Democratic primary — though both remained undecided.
“We have gone back and forth, numerous times,” said Mary. “But I’m pretty sure I’m down to two candidates.” — Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar. George nodded agreement.
Down the road, Gary Tolson, pastor of the Congregational Church, and also of Moultonborough, was clear-eyed in his support of the president.
“I support the direction he’s taken the country, the economy’s doing good, unemployment’s low … it’s just evidence of somebody doing a good job,” said Tolson.
Tamworth and the areas around it, Farnum said, used to be more solidly Republican. But that has changed, in part thanks to an influx of wealthier retirees and people in tech-related jobs who can work remotely.
Meanwhile, the town lost industry and saw its overall economy shrink as other nearby communities, especially ones more popular with tourists, grew. As much of the region grew richer, many Tamworth residents did not, Farnum said, noting that a relatively large percent of students here rely on school lunch subsidies.
Farnum added that in the meantime, local politics has grown more contentious.
“I would say it trickles down even to local politics. People get incredibly polarized,” she said. “I’m concerned we’ve lost our ability to even talk across the aisle, and I don’t mean national, I mean at the local level.”
Sitting at the counter of The Other Store in Tamworth, Steve Toomey, of next-door North Sandwich, shared Farnum’s concern.
“Where I come from is a lot of liberals and Democrats and what I find is you can’t have a healthy debate unless you’re like-minded,” he said.
An affable man who was greeted by cries of “Stevie!” as he walked in to offer hugs before settling into a cup of coffee, Toomey said he did not particularly identify as a Republican or Democrat.
“I’m fiscally conservative, but I’m in the middle,” he said. “I see both sides.”
He seemed less angry at a perceived inability to speak his mind than hurt.
“It seems that there’s two different countries, two different thoughts. And you’re either with ‘em or agin' ‘em. And I can see both sides,” he said.
“I’m a humanist. I love everybody.”
Farnum said she was not sure how her party could tip voters who “see both sides?”
“It’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it?”
