NH Democrats Snub Biden Re-Election Announcement

🔴 President Joe Biden announced his re-election campaign Tuesday in a video

🔴 Many Democrats posted messages of support, but most of the New Hampshire congressional delegation was silent

🔴 There is likely lingering anger from New Hampshire Democrats after the first presidential primary was taken away by the DNC

President Joe Biden's re-election announcement Tuesday was met with silence from most New Hampshire Democrats, who are at odds with the national party over the decision to bump the state as the first in the nation primary.

In the hours following the release of a video by his campaign, many leading Democrats –some of whom had their own thoughts about the White House – offered encouragement and support on Twitter, including former President Barack Obama the Democratic National Committee,  New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.

Silence From New Hampshire

Of the four member of New Hampshire's Democratic congressional delegation, only Rep. Annie Kuster from the 2nd Congressional district commented about the president's decision on social media as of Wednesday morning. The state Democratic party and chairman Raymond Buckley also didn't comment on their respective Twitter accounts.

SNHU Civic Scholar and founder of NH Political Capital Dean Spiliotes said their lingering disappointment at losing the first in the nation presidential primary would be very clear if there's nothing posted by Wednesday.

"My expectation would have been that in the short term, the response would be a little bit muted because of lingering disappointment over the primary," Spiliotes said. But he expects that once the primary comes and goes in 2024, state Democrats will come around.

"It'll become 'rally around the president' because they obviously won't want the alternative," Spiliotes said.

It is widely believed that Biden was behind the move by the national party to change the order of the Democratic primaries. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan have spoken out against the decision, and went so far as to sit out the White House congressional ball  Buckley fought for the primary in front of the party Rules and Bylaws committee in January.

The committee wanted the state party to promise to eliminate the state law requiring New Hampshire to hold the first presidential primary, and to commit to expanding early voting options. That is an impossibility as the minority party, especially since Gov. Chris Sununu and Republicans said they won't go along with the request.

No Biden on the Ballot?

New Hampshire Republicans have already set their date for the primary, and Democrats will likely hold their primary the same day and buck their assigned date. This also presents the possibility Biden won't appear on the ballot or campaign in the Granite State.

"If you believe what the DNC is saying in terms of its willingness to not only sanction the states, but they have suggested that they would sanction candidates who actually even participate in New Hampshire by being on the ballot. So while it's not set in stone, there's a real possibility that Biden won't even be on the New Hampshire ballot, perhaps people will write him in," Spiliotes said.

He expects that if Biden wants to be on the ballot, that the DNC would allow it without any sanctions against the president.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNH