Op-Ed: Why should NH be first? It works.

I published this piece in the NH Union Leader. Read it on their website.

We’re more than six months away from the midterms and the nation is already casting its eye toward another presidential election. Party leaders and their supporters are asking the perennial question: who should cast the first primary ballots? New Hampshire has offered to take on this responsibility once again. Why?

Why are we asking presidential candidates to trudge through ice and snow and drink tepid coffee out of paper cups while rooms full of ridiculously well-informed retirees, high school students, and parents with babies in tow pepper them with questions about every issue under the sun? Because here in New Hampshire, we know how democracy is supposed to work: direct, messy, and everywhere, all the time.

When people asked me how I could possibly run for Congress without social media, I told them that if it could be done anywhere, it could be done here. There’s a reason presidential candidates have made a quadrennial pilgrimage to our little state over the years. It’s the same reason we embrace the radical and frequently bizarre arrangement that is a 424-person state legislature. It’s the reason why dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of people sit in a school gym on a snowy Saturday for eight hours to take part in the first half of their town meeting. It’s why ballots for our municipal elections in Hampton frequently run to ten or more pages. It’s because New Hampshire loves democracy — up close and personal. And we know that democracy means showing up, over and over again, for as long as it takes to get it right.

When reporters ask if I think candidates around the country can copy my social media-free strategy, I have to say honestly: “I don’t know.” I don’t know if politicians can stop recording direct-to-camera videos and breathlessly tracking likes and shares long enough to look up and actually acknowledge the people they serve. I do know New Hampshire. I know the people here expect to meet their candidates in person: in a church basement, at a union hall, on a picnic bench, or after checking out at the grocery store. It’s a humbling place to run for office because voters take their responsibility to vet candidates very seriously — and that means answering tough questions and welcoming raised eyebrows and follow-ups about what the last three candidates said on the same topic.

For Granite Staters, selfies and viral videos just won’t cut it, and that’s a good thing. We want democracy we can touch and shape — democracy as real and present as we are. Candidates who try to bluff their way to victory through photo-ops, made-for-social-media stunts, and ideological bluster find out quickly this isn’t the state for them.

Critics point out, fairly, that New Hampshire doesn’t look like America. We’re not as diverse as the country whose candidates we claim the right to vet first. But the first primary was never meant to be a demographic mirror; it’s a stress test. Can you show up, hold your ground, and earn trust one conversation at a time?

I’ll concede that no state deserves to go first on its merits alone. But if one has to, I’d rather it be a state where candidates are expected to listen before they speak, and where voters have spent generations building the civic habits to hold them accountable when they don’t.

In 2028, our social media feeds and cable news channels will be flooded with candidates chasing the best sound bites and the next viral moment. And in New Hampshire, we will still expect them to show up — no matter how cold the temperatures or how deep the snow — and answer our questions.

New Hampshire isn’t perfect, and our primary won’t fix what’s broken in American politics by itself. But the qualities this state demands of its candidates — patience, humility, the willingness to stand in a room full of people who disagree with you — aren’t quaint traditions. They’re exactly what’s missing from national politics right now, and why New Hampshire should retain its first-in-the-nation primary.

Carleigh Beriont is a historian who teaches about the intersection of religion, politics, and public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. A Hampton resident, she chairs the town’s select board and is a Democratic candidate for Congress in the 1st District.