A Progressive Push in Purple New Hampshire

In New Hampshire’s First Congressional District, a sizable field of Democratic candidates are running to fill U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas’ (D-NH) seat as the congressman runs for U.S. Senate. Since the race began, the field has been led by two center-left candidates: Stefany Shaheen, daughter of retiring U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Maura Sullivan, a Marine veteran and former Pentagon official. 

However, a third candidate with a more progressive bent has gained momentum in the polls ahead of the Sep. 8 primary, threatening to bring the insurgent progressive movement to the Granite State. That would be Carleigh Beriont, an educator and former union organizer who currently serves as the chair of the select board in Hampton, New Hampshire. 

The struggle between Shaheen, Sullivan, and Beriont to appeal to the Democratic base reflects the ongoing turmoil roiling the Democratic Party as they attempt to respond to Trump 2.0.

Shaheen’s policy positions include more progressive proposals like imposing a moratorium on AI data centers and overturning Citizens United, but also a number of more measured reforms like “overhauling” ICE (as opposed to full abolition). Shaheen’s language around healthcare is particularly indicative of her attempts to appeal to both the more centrist wing of the Democratic party and its burgeoning progressive movement, as she claims to support Medicare for All while simultaneously advocating for a “public option.”

Sullivan, on the other hand, has made fewer overtures towards a progressive ideology, instead positioning herself comfortably in-line with the party establishment. Her campaign has centered heavily around her veteran status and experience in the Obama administration, with policy prescriptions that focus on improving the status quo rather than reinventing the wheel. Sullivan supports Medicare “for All Who Want It” and wants to address student debt by investing in trade schools, AmeriCorps, and other alternative education paths.

Neither Shaheen nor Sullivan has opted to label Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as a ‘genocide,’ nor have they called for the abolition of ICE. And while both candidates have touted their opposition to corruption in our campaign finance system, voters have raised concerns over Shaheen’s receipt of major donations from corporate lobbyists. 

This has opened a lane on the left flank of the primary ballot for Beriont, whose proposals more closely align with the wave of progressive candidates who have brought upsets to Democratic primaries across the country this midterm season.

Beriont, who launched her campaign last summer, was an underdog from the start, polling at a meager three percent as recently as June. But in recent weeks Beriont has gained, climbing to eleven percent in the latest poll from the University of New Hampshire (compared to twenty-four percent for Sullivan and nineteen percent for Shaheen). Another progressive, state Representative Heath Howard, has since dropped out of the race and endorsed Beriont. Howard stood at ten percent in the UNH poll, and some of those voters may now back Beriont. Meanwhile, a whopping twenty-nine percent of voters remain undecided.

I had the opportunity to speak with Beriont on Friday, Aug. 28, to discuss the campaign, her policy priorities, and the progressive movement in New Hampshire.

When asked about her newfound status as the leading progressive in CD-1, Beriont—who spoke with me on the phone from a UNH graduate student workers picket line—told me she attributes the increase in support to her campaign’s focus on grassroots organizing.

“So I am an organizer. I'm here on the picket line today because I love solidarity, but also because I helped organize the graduate student worker union at Harvard, and I've approached this campaign in a somewhat similar way,” Beriont said. “So we have 75 communities in the district that I'm seeking to represent in Washington. And at the beginning, I decided I would try my very best to spend as much time as possible in every single one of them—meeting people, bringing them together, and asking them what they wish that Washington understood better about their lives, because I think there's so many smart people here who really have their finger on the pulse and a good sense of what we can do differently as a country.”

Beriont added that she decided early on in her campaign to forego any investment into social media, instead opting to spend her limited resources on on-the-ground organizing efforts including phone banking, door knocking, and handwriting postcards to constituents. Over the past year, she has put over 28,000 miles on her car visiting residents across the district, recruiting 1,200 volunteers, including 85 volunteer leaders in 60 different towns.

“I think that all of that is coming to a tee along with the message that I have, which is ‘more of the same won’t fix this,’” Beriont said. “We need different people in Washington, and I think the timing is just right for that kind of message. The energy is so good around our campaign that people want to be a part of it.”

While she now stands as the leading progressive candidate in the polls, Beriont is not the only candidate running to the left of Shaheen and Sullivan. Human rights attorney Christian Urrutia and nonprofit leader Sarah Chadzynski remain in the race, at four and one percent respectively in the UNH poll. I asked Beriont what she believes makes her the definitive progressive choice in this race.

“So I think at this point, when Heath [Howard] dropped out and endorsed me, I think that really solidified it for a lot of people,” Beriont said. “In the two polls that we had taken before that happened, I was still leading, but the two of us together are just an absolute powerhouse, and we have been very staunch in our support for progressive policy. Medicare for all, ending these wars and our funding for them, creating a just and humane immigration system and getting rid of ICE.”

In addition to her policy positions—which also include banning stock trading among federal officials, enforcing anti-monopoly laws against Big Tech, and pursuing a moratorium on AI data centers—Beriont also believes she has the right messaging skills to rally voters to her cause.

“I'm the chair of the select board in a really purple community,” said Beriont. “I can make the case to people for how these federal policies can lower our property taxes and enable us to pay people who live in New Hampshire enough money to stay here. I think that way of engaging people has been really powerful. And so I think it's the combination of like the ground game and the message that is hitting at the right moment.”

Beriont said her experience as chair of Hampton’s Select Board has also given her further insight into the issues facing the state and has taught her how to act as an accountable representative for her constituents.

“I would never, ever have run for Congress if I hadn't had that experience,” Beriont said of her time in local government. “For one, it's given me a really clear sense of just how far short our federal and state funding is falling right now. We live in a state where our current governor is literally tasking our AG to overturn the Claremont decision and trying to say that our state should have a $0 obligation for our public education system. And when the federal government doesn't pay and the state government doesn't pay, who pays? Taxpayers, property taxpayers. And we have an incredibly regressive property tax system.”

Beriont said she views the Trump administration’s gutting of federal funding—from EPA grants to FEMA—as wholly unsustainable. In her view, tying that reality to the money coming out of taxpayers’ pockets is a winning strategy for progressives in a purple state like New Hampshire.

“When I talk about fully funding special education at the percentage that our federal government promised to in the 1970s in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, people know what that means because they know how much that costs us as a community right now,” Beriont said. “And I would say that at the local level it's nonpartisan…it's made me very confident in something that I went into this election with, which is that the biggest divide in this country right now is not between Democrats and Republicans.”

In Beriont’s view, the real divide facing the country is between regular people trying to get by in an increasingly hostile economy and a political and economic system that treats average Americans like they don’t matter.

“The amount of money that's in politics right now, and what we're seeing with corporate consolidation in healthcare and tech and media, I think we're seeing the influence of that on our political ecosystem in both immediate ways and less obvious ones,” Beriont said. “The lobbying money, right? The amount of AI that's being integrated into our lives. Death by a thousand cuts when it comes to paying for health care. But then it's also impeding people's ability to organize and build power, which is what we need to do at this moment to make the kind of changes that we need.”

In addition to her experience in local government, Beriont is also emphasizing her experience in union organizing ahead of the primary. While earning her master’s and PhD at Harvard, Beriont helped lead the successful campaign to unionize graduate student workers and found UAW Local 5118. Beriont continues to organize to this day, not only standing with UNH’s graduate student workers but also recently joining the Mass General Brigham nurses’ strike in Boston.

Beriont told me she would continue that advocacy as a member of Congress by supporting the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, ensuring the National Labor Relations Board maintains a quorum, and bringing the union approach of building consensus to Washington.

“With union organizers, your goal is to build consensus and get a contract for working people and make life better, and you will work with whoever you have to make sure that happens,” Beriont said. “So I look for bipartisan solutions. I think breaking up corporate medicine is a great example of this because there is support from across the political spectrum. Enacting the kind of campaign finance reforms that we need. Bans on congressional, judicial, and executive stock trading. This has support from across the political spectrum. And so it's like, where can we build trust and find ways to work together while not conceding the importance and the urgency of building a functioning immigration system and passing Medicare for All and dealing with our climate crisis?”

While Beriont remains an underdog going into the Sep. 8 primary, she views her campaign and those of the other progressives running as evidence of a growing progressive movement in New Hampshire—one that could bring further upsets for the Democratic establishment this primary season.

“I think what we're seeing right now is like an absolute golden era for progressive politics in New Hampshire. We had a handful of people run for Congress as progressives and really challenged this assumption that a purple New Hampshire is a New Hampshire that doesn't support progressive policies,” said Beriont. “People do support progressive policies here in New Hampshire, especially when you invite them to be part of the political process. 

“I think if there's anywhere that a resurgence of the progressive movement—one that's New Hampshire focused, New Hampshire specific and really grassroots oriented—if there's anywhere that this kind of thing can work, it's right here in New Hampshire.”

Featured image is Carleigh Beriont with striking University of New Hampshire graduate student workers.