2025 Recap: 10,648 Miles Later, What Have I Learned?
Since launching this campaign, I’ve put 10,648 miles on my car. We’ve spent time in 40 of the 75 towns in New Hampshire’s First District and been welcomed into libraries, daycares, breweries, church basements, and living rooms. And all of the most meaningful moments of this campaign have happened offline with real people who want to be heard and to help make our country more fair, our politics less toxic, and our lives better.
I’ve listened to your stories about the healthcare you cannot afford and the rising cost of childcare, your worries about making rent and the future of public education, and the urgency of protecting our environment and rebuilding trust in one another and in our democracy. These conversations are the foundation of this campaign, and they shape how I think about my leadership and what it means to represent people well.
House Party in Exeter and “Coffee with Carleigh” driveway party in Hampton
Since June, I’ve been proud to welcome over 100 volunteers onto the campaign. They have hosted house parties and book clubs, they have written hundreds of postcards to neighbors, and they have helped to build this campaign through real conversations and connections in their own communities.
With volunteers at our November Core Volunteer Meeting and the NHDP Midterm Convention.
I’ve walked in parades, celebrated Old Home Days in Gilford, Londonderry, and across the district, and spent countless evenings at Democratic committee meetings and weekends at cultural and community events. We bore witness, sang, and prayed together monthly at the Granite State Organizing Project Interfaith Immigrant Justice Jericho Walks around the Norris Cotton Federal Building in Manchester and celebrated the Granite State’s thriving arts scene and cultural diversity at the New Hampshire Theater Project, the Rochester Performing Arts Center, Strawberry Banke’s 4th of July Naturalization Ceremony, Pride, Manchester’s Mahrajan, and the Portsmouth BIPOC Fest.
I spoke at the New Hampshire Democratic Convention, attended the NHDP Roosevelt Dinner, and supported rules amendments to strengthen our state party. I canvassed in Lee and knocked doors to support local municipal candidates, because building power starts at the local level and strong communities make for a stronger state party.
Speaking at the NHDP Midterm Convention and a Gilford Democratic Committee Meeting
I’ve stood in solidarity with people organizing for fairness and dignity, including Eversource workers, Starbucks workers, and UNH students fighting for fair working conditions and contracts. I’ve also protested with millions of other people at the No Kings, Rage Against the Regime, and Good Trouble 50-50-1 rallies, eaten eggs with Bernie Sanders at the AFL-CIO Labor Day Breakfast, and been invited to so many different gatherings where people have stood together peacefully and called for accountability and democratic renewal.
I’ve spent time listening and learning alongside our partners doing critical advocacy work, including UNH students, NH Outright, 603 Forward, Stay Work Play, the New Hampshire Housing Coalition, and others who are deeply engaged in shaping a more just and inclusive future for our state.
I’ve shared your stories alongside my own in interviews with Adam Sexton on WMUR, Seacoast Currents, 404 Media, Manchester Ink Link, and The Conway Daily Sun, and written op-eds for local papers across the state focused on the issues Granite Staters care about most including childcare, school vouchers, and food insecurity.
Recording Close Up with Adam Sexton and my episode of Seacoast Currents
And I’ve written thousands of thank-you notes and postcards to supporters in NH and around the country because I am so grateful for your support. Together, we’ve raised over a quarter of a million dollars from more than 3,000 grassroots donations across all 50 states, from people who believe good leadership starts with listening, not assumptions. When you ask people what they wish politicians understood better about their lives, they have a lot to say. These kinds of conversations and the connections they create should form the basis for our policies.
This is what building something real looks like. It looks like miles driven, doors knocked, parades walked, meetings attended, notes written, and trust earned over time. It looks like listening more than talking, and doing the work it takes to strengthen our communities and our democracy.
Thank you to everyone who has shown up, asked questions, attended events, bought merch, donated, volunteered, and helped build this campaign in big and small ways. We are just getting started.
Here’s to 2026 and building a better world together.