President Biden has refrained from campaigning in the Democratic primary in New Hampshire, but the actions of top Democrats in recent weeks and Biden’s planned visit to neighboring Boston on Tuesday suggest he is still eager to avoid embarrassment in what is traditionally the first electoral contest of the year. country has been.

Biden will not appear on the ballot in New Hampshire, which broke Democratic National Committee rules by jumping ahead of South Carolina in the party’s new primary calendar. Rule changes Biden’s allies pushed by the DNC will keep the winner of the unsanctioned primary, set for Jan. 23, no closer to the Democratic nomination.

But Biden allies, including Rep. Ro Khanna of Fremont, are waging a write-in campaign for the president in New Hampshire anyway. Top Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, have personally presented Biden’s case to Democrats in New Hampshire. And on Tuesday, the president will come within 40 miles of the state he is supposedly ignoring when he arrives in nearby Boston for a fundraising blitz that is sure to get media attention in the Granite State.

The actions of Biden and his allies reflect the reality that while the New Hampshire primary is not recognized by the DNC, it will still serve as an initial test for an incumbent president facing strong electoral headwinds, including declining poll numbers among young people and voters of color.

To avoid the sting of humiliation, Democratic elected officials, party leaders and activists have in recent weeks encouraged voters to write Biden’s name on the ballot in New Hampshire, firmly embroiling the incumbent president in a contest that no longer matters . In late November, Biden allies went further and launched Granite for America, a super PAC dedicated to the write-in effort that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

On Thursday, Khanna held a conference call to rally New Hampshire organizers, state lawmakers, community leaders and labor leaders to support the president’s re-election campaign despite his absence from the vote.

“Even though some are [New Hampshire Democrats] were not happy with the process, they understand what is at stake,” he said. “They care about a good turnout and I think it’s important that we get the message across to the president and he has a good performance because I think that will set the momentum for the rest of the campaign.”

Khanna, who debated GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy at the St. Anslem Colleges New Hampshire Institute of Politics in early November, has visited the politically important state twice in the past year. He said state party officials have invited him to return to be Biden electors.

At the New Hampshire Democrats’ annual Eleanor Roosevelt dinner on Friday, at which Jeffries made the case for Biden, the pro-write-in group handed out “write-in Joe Biden” stickers and lawn signs to guests.

U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), Biden’s most high-profile Democratic challenger, is among the 21 names listed on the ballot in New Hampshire, along with self-help author Marianne Williamson. Phillips and Williamson spent a significant amount of time campaigning for what could only amount to a symbolic victory.

Phillips’ campaign manager is former Andrew Yang campaign manager Zach Graumann, who is credited with drawing media attention to Yang’s quixotic 2020 primary campaign. Phillips has also received outside help from veteran GOP strategist Steve Schmidt, who is credited with expect him to launch a Super PAC that will support him. Williamson’s campaign manager, Carlos Cardona, is the former chairman of the Laconia, N.H., Democrats and has ties to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Biden’s leading opponent four years ago.

The unofficial primaries offer a big opportunity for New Hampshire Democrats to test the campaign’s message, increase turnout, recruit poll workers and prove the DNC wrong by pushing the state out of the top spot on the calendar , argue local party leaders and strategists.

Some New Hampshire supporters still feel the DNC is punishing them for Sanders’ victories there in 2016 and 2020, and that party leaders “don’t like New Hampshire’s free-thinking voters, which is exactly what makes New Hampshire special.” Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley discussed this.

The entry presents a “really great opportunity for Democrats,” said Lucas Meyer, a longtime Democratic political strategist in the state. “To use the submission as an opportunity to train party activists and local committees on how to talk about the campaign, I think this is the best way to present it to the DNC.”

Strategists and pundits have compared Biden to former President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Democratic incumbent who overlooked New Hampshire in 1968 but narrowly defeated a challenge from U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota (Johnson won 49% of the vote compared with McCarthy, who won 42%). Johnson quit the race a few weeks later.

But Biden is helped by the lack of serious Democratic competition, said Dante Scala, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire.

“For Biden, I think in some ways he would rather see the entire primary go by as quietly as possible,” Scala said. “There are really big concerns among Democrats about Biden’s age and so forth, there’s no question about that. If there was a serious alternative, it would be a different kind of breed.

Former state Democratic Party chairwoman Kathy Sullivan, who helped organize the letter-writing effort and launch the super PAC, said she was “mad, if not angrier than other people” about Biden’s criticism, but said the grassroots efforts had more to do with preventing the former president.

Donald

Trump, the leading Republican candidate, will not return to the White House.

“You have to put aside your anger and frustration with the process and say, what is the best way to keep Trump out of the White House, or any other MAGA type of person? That is by re-electing Joe Biden.” “He’s our guy and he’s done a good job,” Sullivan told the Times. “One thing you hear a lot from the Biden write-in people is that you don’t cut off your nose despite your face. This is about the future of our democracy, the future of our country, so suck it up and do what it takes. What’s best is for the county, what’s best is for democracy and, quite frankly, what’s best is for the New Hampshire primary.”

Still, incumbent presidents who faced better-than-expected insurgent campaigns in New Hampshire have found themselves on shakier footing in the general election. For Biden, there can be no margin of error in what is expected to be a 2020 rematch.

Johnson’s failure ultimately led to Richard Nixon’s victory. Gerald Ford fended off a challenge from Ronald Reagan in 1976, and George HW Bush faced Pat Buchanan in 1992 in two elections in which the incumbents lost.

“That’s a danger here,” Sullivan said. ‘That’s why writing is important.’