Why Hillary Clinton’s 78 NH representative endorsements matter less than you think
Hillary Clinton received endorsements from 78 New Hampshire state representatives on Monday, a number that looks impressive to the untrained eye.
But given that New Hampshire has a total of 400 state repesentatives, 78 endorsements isn’t quite the big news Clinton’s campaign would like it to be, according to Wayne Lesperance, a political science professor at New England College in New Hampshire.
“If you’re out of state reading this, you think, ‘Wow, if our legislature only has 100 [representatives] or 200 [representatives], that’s a huge number,’’’ he said. “Folks forget that we have such a large legislature in New Hampshire.’’
The 78 pro-Clinton state reps make up less than half the 160 Democrats holding state representative office. Compare that to the U.S. Senate, where Clinton has the endorsement of 38 of 45 Democratic members, including New Hampshire’s Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
“The running joke in New Hampshire is you can’t go anywhere without running into a current or former state rep because we have such a large legislature,’’ Lesperance said.
Still, 78 endorsements in one batch could be important for those uninitiated in New Hampshire and its unique First in the Nation primary.
“I think it’s an impressive number, and it’s more for out-of-state consumption than it is for in-state,’’ he said.
Clinton holds a commanding lead nationally in the Democratic primary, but has been neck-and-neck with Sen. Bernie Sanders in several recent New Hampshire polls.
Gallery: The 2016 presidential candidates
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