Around New England

Amy Klobuchar Nets Another Endorsement in New Hampshire — Now Has Most of House Leadership There

February 2, 2020

If endorsements translated into votes, Amy Klobuchar would have a fighting chance in the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary nine days from now.

Klobuchar has now nailed down the support from three of the top four Democrats in leadership in the New Hampshire House of Representatives.

The majority leader of the House, Doug Ley, of Jaffrey, threw his support to Klobuchar on Sunday, February 2, according to The Union Leader.

Ley is an associate professor of history at Franklin Pierce University, which has a main campus in Rindge. He teaches American history from colonial times through Reconstruction, focusing on New England and labor.

Ley is a former president of the New Hampshire chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, the second largest teachers union in the state.

The speaker pro tempore of the New Hampshire House (Lucy Webber of Walpole) and the deputy speaker (Karen Ebel of New London) were already supporting Klobuchar, according to The Union Leader.

Of the top four Democrats in the House, only the speaker, Steve Shurtleff, a longtime Joe Biden supporter, isn’t supporting Klobuchar.

The Union Leader, which has a right-of-center-but-anti-Trump editorial stance, endorsed Klobuchar in the New Hampshire primary last week.

Klobuchar, a U.S. senator from Minnesota, is left of center but not as far left as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren on issues such as health care, which she isn’t ready to nationalize.

Some Democrats are desperate for a moderate-sounding candidate who can beat the socialist Sanders, who is leading polls in both Iowa and New Hampshire. Candidates who win both usually win their party’s nomination. Some Democrats are worried Sanders would get creamed by President Donald Trump in November and take down other Democrats with him.

Klobuchar has impressed in debates, but has been unable to crack the top four in the vast majority of polls. A recent Emerson poll showed her surging to double digits in Iowa, all the way to third place, but it’s unclear whether she’ll actually manage that and whether that will be enough to vault her into the conversation.