Democratic presidential candidates traded jabs over money and message on Sunday, two days before New Hampshire voters pick their choice to take on U.S. Republican President Donald Trump in November.
Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg traded jabs over money and message on Sunday, two days before New Hampshire voters pick their choice to take on U.S. Republican President Donald Trump in November.
The rivals, who emerged from last week’s Iowa caucuses essentially tied, offer stark alternatives for the top of the Democratic ticket. Sanders, 78, is a senator for Vermont and an impassioned progressive who has spent almost three decades in Congress, while Buttigieg, 38, is a moderate military veteran who served two terms as mayor of South Bend, Ind.
“The idea that we’ve either got to wait for a revolution or wait for the status quo leaves most of us out,” Buttigieg said at a packed middle school gymnasium in Nashua, N.H., in thinly veiled references to rivals Sanders and former vice-president Joe Biden. “We need a politics that brings all of us in.”
Buttigieg, who would be the nation’s first openly gay president, deflected attacks from his more well-known rivals as they jostled to dampen the momentum of a candidate who has surged in New Hampshire polls over the past few days.
Tuesday’s primary, the second in a state-by-state nominating contest, also will test the staying power of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who finished third in Iowa, and Biden, who placed fourth. They joined the field of 11 Democratic candidates for a frantic day of campaigning ahead of the New Hampshire vote.
Here is what is happening on the campaign trail on Sunday:
Who’s bankrolling the campaigns
Buttigieg told a crowd of 1,800 in Nashua that Democrats needs a unifying voice to take on Trump.
Sanders, speaking in Plymouth, criticized Buttigieg for taking money from “40 billionaires.”
He touted his own small-dollar fundraising, saying, “Because we bring forth an agenda that doesn’t ask for approval from Wall Street, or the drug companies, our agenda is the agenda that represents working families.”
Buttigieg, who likes to note he is the least wealthy of the Democratic candidates, countered that he has never hesitated to stand up to industry.
“Bernie’s pretty rich, and I would happily accept a contribution from him,” Buttigieg said on CNN.
