CONCORD, N.H. (Jan. 6) — Kevin Whitbeck’s car is covered in stickers supporting Republican presidential nomination candidate Ron Paul, a congressman from Texas.
“This is my first presidential election and I feel I need to make a stand,” said Whitbeck, a 20-year-old from the Albany, N.Y. He is in New Hampshire, he said, to fight for himself — and for his daughter. “I don’t want her growing up in a bad world,” he said.
Whitbeck is among the scores of volunteers who’ve come from all over the country to New Hampshire to support Paul’s campaign. Many came with “meet-up groups” who are independent of the campaign. They go door to door to drum up votes. They brave the bitter cold to stand on street corners with signs for Paul. They spend hours in the campaign headquarters calling potential voters.
Why New Hampshire? The Granite State, it turns out, is particularly fertile ground for Paul because the state is home to a robust libertarian community. And the state has a strong streak of independence that has appealed to Paul’s supporters. One group has even taken the New Hampshire motto — “Live Free or Die” — as its name.
“This is a natural fit for this kind of state,” said Kate Rich, a representative from the Paul campaign.
Roxi Collinson is a coordinator for Operation Live Free or Die, a grassroots organization supporting the Paul campaign. She praises Paul for his political history as well as for his principles. “Not only does he stand up and speak the truth,” said Collinson, “but he’s been doing so for 30-odd years.”
Operation Live Free or Die has worked to provide lodging and transportation for Paul volunteers. The organization is housing 10-20 people per house with many supporters sleeping on air mattresses. Some have found housing with local supporters.
Chase Berger, a supporter working with Operation Live Free or Die from Lincoln, Neb., has been in New Hampshire since Christmas. “I quit my job, bought a plane ticket, and here I am,” he said.
Part of Paul’s appeal is his ideas about small government, less taxes and personal freedoms. Those principles connect well to members of a local libertarian movement, the Free State Project. The group’s president, Irena Goddard, says that the Free State Project does not endorse candidates as a rule. But, she said, Paul’s ideas seem to resonate with many of the group’s members.
“There’s a lot of overlap,” Goddard said.
Paul was the closing speaker at the Free State Project’s Liberty Forum on Sunday. He arrived and left in an electric atmosphere of cheers, roars and standing ovations.
One of the supporters in the crowd was James Strong from Southern Mississippi, a worker with Operation Live Free or Die. He’s been inspired, Strong said, to see so many supporters coming from all over the country.
“It’s good to network and interact with other people who feel the same way,” Strong said. “It’s good to know that there’s so many other people that are that passionate about it.”
For his part, Whitbeck of Albany has been parking his Paul-sticker-covered car outside of the home of friends’ parents in New Hampshire. He expresses pride in his work for Paul here. “We’re planting seeds,” said Whitbeck, “opening people’s eyes.”
(Liam Migdail-Smith, a magazine journalism and political philosophy sophomore, is covering the New Hampshire primaries for The Westerly Sun.)
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