DERRY — With a date set for the New Hampshire primary election, presidential hopefuls are doubling down on selling their ideas and plans to Granite State voters.
On Tuesday night, former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley was the latest to hold a town hall at the Derry Opera House.
The audience responded well to Haley’s speech, during which she stuck to topics that New Hampshire voters care about: illegal immigration, the current wars in Israel and Ukraine, rebalancing America’s budget, and how she plans to handle foreign policies with China.
Londonderry local Deborah Bailin said Haley is the first politician she’s seen in a while that has gotten her excited about the election cycle.
“It’s about time we had a woman in the White House,” Bailin said. “She’s electable and has good ideas and won’t be pushed around. I think she can appeal to and work with both sides of the aisle.”
Bailin, who has lived in New Hampshire for more than 30 years, said she comes out every four years during election season to see who is coming to town and what they have to say. She said it doesn’t matter if they’re Democrats or Republicans, these visits from national politicians is what makes New Hampshire so special.
In addition to being a supporter of Haley, Bailin got the chance to be one of the half-dozen people who asked Haley questions after her speech. Bailin’s question revolved around the social media app TikTok and what Haley plans to do about it.
TikTok is a social media phone app that was developed in China and has thousands of short videos that range from seconds long up to three minutes. It has become extremely popular in America, but has also been banned in some countries.
“We have got to ban TikTok in America; it is ridiculous,” Haley said, adding: “This is a Chinese infiltrated social media app. What Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea have done … they learned the cheapest form of warfare was to use social media to divide our country.”
Bailin said she was extremely happy with Haley’s answer, and the fact that Haley continued beyond talking about just TikTok and elaborated on how there are fake profiles on social media websites and how those affect freedom of speech in America.
“I’m glad she expanded it all the way to all social media,” Bailin said. “I have two kids in their mid-20s and I’m concerned they’ll be so influenced by what they see on social media.”
While plenty of the audience was filled with people from Southern New Hampshire, there were some political tourists from Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and even a visitor born in Australia, but currently living in Washington, D.C.
The Opera House’s stage was packed with rows of seats, the floor and balcony were filled with people holding “NH loves NH” signs — Haley’s slogan for the First in the Nation primary.
Among the audience was 9-year-old Manchester resident Hannah Kesselring, who has recently been going viral online for her question she asked at an event last week in Hooksett, New Hampshire.
This week, Haley invited Hannah to ask the final question of the night, and Hannah asked the former ambassador for three good reasons she should be elected as president over competitors like Vivek Ramaswamy and Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Haley answered Hannah’s question, saying that, as a former governor, she knows governmental bureaucracy and how to make it work in her favor, that as a former ambassador, she knows how to deal with countries like Russia and China, and finally, as a mother, she wants what’s best for the country.
“The truth is I don’t want my kids growing up like this,” Haley said. “I don’t feel comfortable with the way the country is and letting my kids have to deal with it.”