Stumping on July 4, Trump’s rivals pitch themselves to early voters

In a high school cafeteria in Merrimack, NH, on Tuesday, where patriotic music blared from the speakers and the lunch tables were decorated with star-studded diapers, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum mingled with families digging in eggs , sausage and pancakes at a Fourth of July breakfast hosted by the local Rotary Club.

Nelson Disco, 88, one of the prospective voters in the small crowd, had a few questions for him. What was he running for? And with which party?

“You’ve got some competition,” Mr. Disco exclaimed, when the governor of North Dakota told him he was seeking the Republican nomination for president.

But Mr Burgum was not deterred: “Great feeling” about the race, he said.

It was the last Fourth of July before New Hampshire’s first Republican primary in the country, scheduled for February, and Iowa’s famed king-making primaries — plenty of time to make up ground, but it was clearly before the darkest of the dark horses that were burning shoe leather on Tuesday that there was a lot to make up for.

Some better-known competitors were also in New Hampshire. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is a distant second in the Republican primary to former President Donald J. Trump, walked in two parades, including one that also attracted South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, who is still far back in the business suit. The weather wasn’t exactly pleasant: Mr. DeSantis, Mr. Scott, and others walking in the afternoon parade in Merrimack, NH, were drenched as a downpour swept through.

Campaigning on Independence Day is a tradition in New Hampshire and Iowa, as old as the primaries and primaries in those states. That would be more than a century of front runners and fellow runners at the Granite State’s parades, picnics, and pancake breakfasts. This year, however, took a twist: The priceless front-runner, Mr. Trump, skipped the hassle, stayed home with his family, and fired off vulgar social media posts.

Yet his campaign henchmen and his own thick shadow still hung heavily over his competition.

In Urbandale, Iowa, where former vice president and current rival to Mr. Trump, Mike Pence, marched in the parade, onlookers erupted in chant — “Trump, Trump, Trump” — as he passed by.

Melody Krejci, 60, of Urbandale, said: “My whole family is Trump supporters, even down to our grandchildren. They also wear Trump clothes and Trump hats.” There are also Trump posters in their rooms, she said.

She added: “I think Pence is a coward,” referring to the mistaken belief, still pushed by Mr. Trump, that his vice president could have rejected enough electoral votes on January 6, 2021, to back the 2020 election. send to the states, and possibly the victory of Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Back in the day—before super-PACs flooded the airwaves, social media brought politicians’ messages straight to voters’ smartphones, and partisans were glued to their favorite cable news programs—showing up on the 4th of July really mattered.

“Retail has always been mostly theater, but now it’s all about performing for the cameras, not meeting regular people and listening to their concerns,” said Fergus Cullen, a former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee.

This year, Mr. Trump’s rivals hoped it still mattered. In Merrimack, NH, volunteers and supporters supporting Mr. DeSantis waited to walk with their candidate in the Fourth of the July parade there, next to a dance troupe in bright pink shirts, a wooden float filled with members of the Bektash Shrine Clowns and a yellow school bus decorated as the Boston Tea Party boat.

But it was another Republican presidential candidate, Mr. Scott, who first caused a stir by appearing on the parade route, followed by a passel from photographers and television cameras.

“Hopefully some of those voters will become our voters,” Scott told reporters when asked his thoughts on the people in DeSantis and Trump gear who came up to shake his hand. “But at the end of the day, we thank God that we have people who are committed to the country, committed to the concept that conservative values ​​always work.”

Outside a pancake breakfast in Merrimack, NH, former Texas Representative Will Hurd and his wife, Lynlie Wallace, mixed with runners during a road race.

Mr Hurd, a moderate Republican and a fierce critic of Mr Trump who is trying to get his fledgling presidential campaign off the starting blocks, said he had just finished exploring the northern border near Vermont, which he says is facing similar problems. struggles. on the southern border in his home state: few resources and increased drug trafficking. Those were the kinds of problems he wanted to address, he said. But for now, he added, he was just happy to just shake hands.

“Today is about meeting people, right?” said Mr. Hurd. “Not everyone is doom scrolling social media or consuming cable news.”

And Trump? “I’m sure people are thankful he’s not out,” he said. “He comes with a lot of baggage.”

If there was any glimmer of hope for the Dark Horses, it was because voters recognized that baggage, which now includes New York felony charges related to the payment of hush money to a porn star and Miami federal felony charges accusing him of abusing very classified documents and hindering government efforts to retrieve them.

In Iowa, Jim Miller, 73, sat along the Urbandale parade route with his wife and other family members. He said he had voted for Mr. Trump twice but was disappointed with his attitude. He wants a candidate who puts being American above Republican or Democrat.

Asked to compare Mr. Pence to Mr. Trump, Mr. Miller said, “Not even close. I would take Pence any day.

As for Mr Burgum, he said he understands how steep his climb would be to even compete for his party’s presidential nomination. The name recognition challenge is “trusted,” he said. But he also noted that people underestimated him when he left behind a lifelong career in the private sector to run for governor in 2016.

He won that race by 20 percentage points and has not been seriously challenged in North Dakota since.

Not everyone was in the dark about his campaign. A volunteer, Maureen Tracey, 55, rushed forward from the back of the room to ask for a selfie with him. She said she liked Mr. Burgum because, like Mr. Trump, he “seemed different from a politician.” But unlike Mr. Trump, she added, Mr. Burgum seemed to be someone she could trust.

Mr Trump “has hurt too many people, and when you hurt that many people, there’s no trust,” Ms Tracey said.

Mr. Burgum, contrasting himself with the most prominent Republican in the race, told Mr. Trump, without naming him, that he decided to run because the country needed a leader who would work for every American, regardless of political conviction.

“Republicans, Independents, Democrats — they all drive American roads, they all go to American schools, they all get health care in America,” he said. “Today is the day to really think about that.”

Ann Hunga Klein contributed reporting from Urbandale, Iowa.