Harvard Adjunct Lecturer, Hampton Selectman Beriont Files, Says Insiders Tried To Push Her Out Of Race

By Damien Fisher, NH Journal

When Democrat Carleigh Beriont filed to run for Congress on Tuesday, she said she was defying some in her own party.

“I can’t be bullied out of a race I have every right to be in,” Beriont told NHJournal.

Beriont, an adjunct lecturer at Harvard University who also serves on the Hampton Select Board, is part of a crowded Democratic primary for the NH-01 seat being vacated by Rep. Chris Pappas (D-Manchester). He is running to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, whose daughter Stefany is the presumed frontrunner in the NH-01 Democratic primary.

Also in the race are Sarah E. Chadzynski, a nonprofit director and former teacher from Lyndeborough; state Rep. Heath Howard of Strafford; Maura Sullivan, a Marine veteran and former Obama administration Defense Department official who ran in 2018; Christian Urrutia, an Airbnb attorney and captain in the Army National Guard; and Bill Conlin, a former state representative from Dover.

One reason many Granite State voters haven’t heard of Beriont: She refuses to use social media as part of her campaign.

“It’s my campaign slogan: More of the same won’t fix this,” she said.

Rumors swirled for weeks that Beriont might jump over to the governor’s race and challenge presumptive Democratic nominee Cinde Warmington. Beriont said those rumors were part of a behind-the-scenes bombardment by surrogates from another campaign who want her to drop out of the race and clear a path for a more establishment candidate. Beriont said she isn’t going anywhere.

“I’m so tired of being told to wait my turn,” Beriont said.

Beriont said her party’s system for candidates seeking higher office is full of obstacles for outsiders like her. She points to the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s policy of requiring candidates to pay tens of thousands of dollars for access to voter data. Meanwhile, she said, the state party has all but ignored the state primary. There are no party-organized debates scheduled to give candidates like Beriont an opportunity to challenge the top-tier candidates in person.

Beriont said one reason Democrats have struggled to win state-level races is that the party has done little to build a bench of electable candidates, instead relying on people with money or name recognition to decide to run. That often means older, more moderate candidates have the advantage over younger, more progressive candidates, she said. The party is essentially ignoring people who can build energized campaigns in favor of canned campaigns and candidates who live and die by the algorithm, she said.

“That’s terrible, and it’s why we keep losing,” Beriont said.

Candidates with insider connections or corporate backing, Beriont said, like Shaheen, Sullivan and Urrutia, spend their time fundraising while she has been doing the work. Beriont has raised nearly $400,000, according to Federal Election Commission reports through March 31, and says she has built a grassroots organization that spans the district.

“I want politicians who will actually engage in the work,” she said.

One thing she hasn’t done is reach out to voters via social media. Her website claims she is “the only candidate for federal office in the United States running without social media” and says her campaign won’t spend money with Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk.

Beriont said she would engage voters in other ways. That means speaking with them one-on-one and in small groups, hearing about their struggles with housing, food prices, and unaffordable health care. She said she would use a seat in Congress to make concrete changes people will feel in New Hampshire, not play partisan games or try to leverage the position for the next step up the political ladder.

“I’m a progressive because I believe everyone should have health care and housing and be able to afford to live,” she said.

One goal she wants to pursue in Congress is getting the federal government to pay its full share of education costs. That would bring down costs for states and help provide property tax relief for New Hampshire homeowners, Beriont said.

Her path to victory against better-funded candidates won’t be moderating her positions, Beriont said, but showing voters of all stripes that they share her goals on health care, education and the economy — and convincing them she can get things done. Progressives can win by being competent, she said.

“We can give people hope that our system isn’t so broken that we can’t fix it,” she said.

As for pressure to push her out of the NH-01 race and into a run for governor, Beriont told supporters after her filing that she hopes that is over now.

“I’ve got the receipt — literally,” Beriont said. “I have the receipt that shows that I am running for Congress.”

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.