The Rise Of The Blue Tide

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Haydn Huard, Writer Staff

The New Hampshire Democratic Party has had a rocky start with being in a red state until the 1990s and was not able to gain control of the State House or Senate. The New Hampshire Democratic Party is starting to see another revival since Bill Clinton took office. When Bill Clinton became a nominee it caused a major shift of a solid red state to become a swing state. This upcoming election has the potential to change New Hampshire politics once again. The Democratic Party can be seen in this year’s Primary results. With the Democrats far exceeding 90,000 of the votes of the 180,000 voter turnout, and getting 60% of undeclared voters. Dante Scala, a Political Scientist stated in an interview with NHPR, that this election we will see a blue wave due to Democratic women wanting to see change.

This election is one of the most important elections for the Democratic party in general. With New Hampshire mainly being a red swing state, voters are leaning towards a blue swing state. The Democrats have two very popular Canadicates within the party, Molly Kelly and Chris Pappas. Molly Kelly running for governor against Chris Sununu, who has a upper hand against Sununu with being more popular within her own party. The Republican Party are split right now due to the fact of S.B.3, an act that Sununu has passed and on social issues. Kelly being very popular among Democrats and undeclared voters with that the people of New Hampshire want progress not stepbacks. Sununu signing the controversial Voting Law S.B.3 that limits voter rights, which Kelly is against and most of New Hampshire is too. New Hampshire was “ranked 4th for easy voting now it went down to  40th”, due to S.B.3 being signed and passed by the Republicans. All of the relation towards the S.B.3 bill can be shown from what followed it. WIth the Women Voters and a large crowd of people from all backgrounds came to protest against the bill when it passed. In a NHPR article, tons of professionals were quoted to show why S.B.3 is a setback for New Hampshire, and that how this limits the rights of voters. Molly Kelly has received three times the amount of donations compared to Sununu, which is rather peculiar for an incumbent. Kelly is a good candidate for the Democratic Party to put forth, she’s been loyal, adapted to each knew candidate and befriend each new democrat. Same goes with Chris Pappas being very well known, with his family owned restaurant the Puritan and him helping making lives fair not separate.

Which is one of the main reasons that the Republicans are losing public attention, with them limiting the public’s rights and not keeping up with the times on social issues. Which is really the only thing that Republicans have to worry about, due to the fact that New Hampshire Democrats and Republicans having similar economic policies. The Democrats want to make simple gun limitions laws that 76% of New Hampshire citizens want shown in a sample poll done by the Democratic Party, but the Republicans have done the opposite with the Conceal and Open Carry policy. Another issue that the Republicans seem to have trouble with is sexual harassment in general, with Eddie Edwards speaking about it with little to no knowledge of how important it is. With Republicans not wanting abortions in general, no matter if it was rape or incest. Which is an idea that is very outdated in the present times. And with the Republicans wanting to get rid of services for those in need like Medicare. Ray Buckley the Democratic chairman has said that “the Republicans want to limit the American Dream”, while the Democrats want to give everyone an equal shot at the American Dream. Which is what almost every American Citizen wants, an equal chance at success.

The Democrat has another big advantage against the Republicans, young blood. The Republicans are full of old men, while the Democrats are making the push for new young people and women to run. With the “diversity in the Democratic party with 56 young people running” says Buckley. Buckley states that the Democratic party is prepared if the young or the incumbents to win this election. This allows the Democrats to have a new perception on new issues that are coming up. The young Democrats can show the incumbents how these issues affect them that they probably did not know. And with new Dems coming in the Republicans are gonna run out of incumbents due to the amount of brand new candidates that are gonna be coming up.

But with all the support and advantages, it does not guarantee success. The Democrats have had this type of wave before, and after that election New Hampshire went back to a red swing state. Mr. Buckley has said that “there is many swings”, so just because the Democratic party is looking good does not mean that they will gain that much attraction to last. The main problem for this is the lack of doing. Which is what happened with the Obama administration, people wanted change because nothing big was happening. But with these big social issues that are getting a lot of media attention, the Democrats have the potential to do something big. The Democrats are gonna bring a wave of blue, but we’ll see if they can ride it or if they stumble and fall off the board.