Harris' candidacy energizes Lakes Region voters

SANDWICH — Women’s rights, and one woman’s name, were on the minds and lips of both voters and Democratic candidates who attended a house party on Sunday evening.

The forum was hosted by Nathaniel Gurien, executive director and founder of the NH Cannabis Party, who is also acting as campaign manager for Carlos Cardona. Cardona, who is hoping to unseat District 2 State Sen. Tim Lang, was one of the candidates in attendance, joined by District 3 State Senate candidate Bill Marsh, gubernatorial candidate Cinde Warmington, congressional hopeful Colin Van Ostern and Emmett Soldati, who is challenging incumbent District 1 Executive Councilor Joe Kenney.

The 100 or so voters who came to size up the candidates responded with enthusiasm to candidate lines about protecting access to abortion care, bolstering public education against what they characterized as threats in the form of school choice vouchers, and seemed most excited by a candidate who was not in attendance: Kamala Harris, who just a week prior had replaced President Joe Biden as the presumptive choice for the top of the Democratic ticket in November.

“New Hampshire has gone through a lot of change, it used to be a pretty solid Republican state,” noted Vicky Dworkin, a resident of Sandwich. “I do not want to see New Hampshire taken over by the Live Free or Die Free Staters.”

Dworkin said she was most concerned about protecting “women’s autonomy,” public education and the environment. Although those issues align with the national Democratic party, she said she resented the party’s recent maneuverings, which she said seemed to deprive voters of their voice in recent primaries. She saw those maneuvers as manipulative in order to ensure the party leadership’s preferred candidate came out on top.

“I think the DNC is being top-down and telling us who the candidate should be,” Dworkin said. “I don’t think that’s the right way to get voters engaged.” She applauded Biden for stepping aside — Trump would have won against him, she predicted — and said she was excited about the chance to vote for Harris.

“She wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I plan to get a sign to put next to my husband’s sign,” which was “unfortunately” for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Dworkin said. “I would be thrilled to see a Black woman president.”

Ellen Lemburg, from North Sandwich, said she attended the event for the chance to meet candidates, especially Warmington, who will have to succeed in a difficult primary battle against former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig if she is to face either of the Republican candidates, Kelly Ayotte or Chuck Morse, in the General Election.

Lemburg said her most important issues were “women’s rights, LGBTQ community support,” support for Planned Parenthood, which provides health care for women in much of the state’s rural areas, and, “just making sure that the Democrats get in, because the Republicans aren’t Republicans anymore, they’ve got so far to the right.

"It seems like the Republicans are going into the Dark Ages.”

Leslie Nicola of Holderness, who was sitting with Lemburg, added, “We want to make sure we have books in the library,” a reference to book-banning campaigns.

Warmington, who currently serves as an executive councilor, seemed to score some favor with the crowd, such as when she recounted a conversation she had with Gov. Chris Sununu after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling, which had protected access to abortion services for a generation. Sununu, in Warmington’s re-telling, asserted “nothing had changed” in New Hampshire as a result. “I had to explain to the governor that for him, personally, nothing had changed, but for half the population, we just became second-class citizens.”

This year’s elections are a chance to correct that, Warmington said — both at the national and local levels.

“With Kamala at the top of this ticket, we’re going win up and down this state,” Warmington said.

On their way out of the event, Plymouth residents Marybeth Bentwood and Amy Hage came away encouraged by what they heard.

Bentwood noted that all in attendance, including the male candidates and audience members, expressed vigorous support for women’s rights to access health care.

Examples of such included Cardona and Soldati, the latter of whom noted his opponent, Kenney, had voted to cancel the state’s contract with Planned Parenthood. “He has done so fully knowing that funding goes beyond abortion care.”

Soldati noted that in the absence of legitimate care providers, poor and uninsured Granite Staters might be duped by so-called “pregnancy crisis centers,” which market themselves as offering “pregnancy services,” as the website for one such provider calls them, but which won’t actually provide abortion care if that’s the patient’s choice.

“If somebody gets pregnant here in Sandwich, they are closer to eight fake abortion clinics than [they are to] the first abortion care provider,” Soldati said.

“It’s great seeing the diversity of candidates tonight,” Bentwood said, adding she was particularly impressed by Warmington, who explained how she was able to lead effectively even as the sole Democrat on the Executive Council.

Bentwood said recent changes in the presidential race inspired her to attend Sunday’s event.

“Having Kamala on the ticket made me come here tonight,” she said. “I feel that the Democrats have a chance and my time wouldn’t be wasted.”

Hage said she also liked what Warmington had to say, specifically how she could build relationships in Concord to get things done.

“I feel like having a woman in office is important,” Hage said, noting there seemed to be a sense of relief among Democratic voters, who had felt “beaten down” and “exhausted” until recently.

“Having the change, by having Harris in the lead, hopefully we can get behind her and feel rejuvenated.”