Politics
Democrats Losing New Hampshire To A Man Whose Father Ran The Bush White House
By Mor Michael, . BSN Network. Satire.
CONCORD, N.H. -- The Democratic Party's plan to retake the United States Senate required winning a small number of carefully selected states, holding everything it already had, and not losing ground to a man whose family has been a fixture of New Hampshire Republican politics since before most of the state's current voters were registered to drive.
The plan is not going well.
Former Republican Sen. John Sununu, who left the Senate in 2009 after losing to Jeanne Shaheen, has re-entered the race and is now, according to multiple polls, competitive in a state Democrats had budgeted as essentially resolved. Sununu's father, John H. Sununu, served as White House Chief of Staff under George H.W. Bush. His grandfather did not hold federal office, though Democrats are reportedly watching the situation.
Party strategists, speaking on background because they are not yet prepared to say this on the record, described the development as "an unexpected variable" and "a situation requiring recalibration," which are the two phrases consultants use when they mean they would like everyone to stop asking about this.
"New Hampshire is a state where voters have a long memory and a deep respect for public service," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, in a statement that did not address why the voters' long memory appears to include John Sununu but not the fifteen years of policy argument Democrats spent trying to replace him.
Sununu himself has been characteristically modest about the campaign's momentum, describing his return to politics as a response to constituent concern, the direction of the country, and in no way related to the fact that his name is engraved on a highway.
Democrats are quick to note that Sununu's record is out of step with New Hampshire voters on several key issues, a line of argument they have been deploying since 2008 when it worked and have not substantially revised since.
A volunteer canvasser in Nashua, reached by phone, said she had knocked on roughly three hundred doors over the past six weeks and found the messaging was "landing really well with people who had already decided." She asked not to be named because she is also the one who booked the venue for the Manchester town hall and the parking situation was, she said, a whole separate thing.
The Democratic nominee has raised significant funds, hired experienced staff, and released a closing argument ad that a focus group in Portsmouth described as "professional" and "something they would not skip if they had already committed to watching."
Sununu, for his part, released an ad that mostly shows him in a barn.
National Democrats have responded to the polling by increasing their investment in the race, which is the phrase they use instead of acknowledging that the previous investment level was set during a period when they thought they did not need to invest. A senior party official confirmed that New Hampshire is now a "top priority," which it was also described as in September, and in August, at two slightly different dollar amounts.
The state has elected a Sununu to something in eleven of the last fourteen cycles. Democrats have described this as a coincidence.
The story we are making fun of: https://www.dailywire.com/news/meet-the-blue-state-senate-candidate-giving-dems-heartburn