• Mike Pence attended a GOP women’s event in this seaside town.
• He is asked about his new book, Trump, and a possible presidential run.
• Biden’s proposal to move South Carolina’s primary ahead of New Hampshire wasn’t well received.

Mike Pence attended a GOP women’s event in this seaside town on Monday.

In recent weeks, he’s been asked about his new book, Trump, and a possible presidential run.

First, Pence was asked about Biden‘s attempt to take the first-in-the-nation primary from New Hampshire.

Pence: “Never” Cheers and applause erupted amid Wentworth by the Sea’s gilded walls and chandeliers. New Hampshire will be the first primary for 100 years.

In New Hampshire, Biden’s proposal to move South Carolina’s primary ahead of New Hampshire wasn’t well received. Republicans and Democrats, elected officials, college professors, diner servers and customers all slammed the president.

“What?!” Laurie Jasper of the NHFRW said. “How dare he try to influence New Hampshire? “It’s ridiculous.”

The proposed change, backed by a DNC panel, isn’t just a reordering of states on the presidential calendar. To New Hampshire residents, it’s a deep disturbance to the state’s political soul, where restaurant workers can list the presidents they’ve met and which ones will look you in the eye.

Its primaries produced John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic U.S. president, and Mitt Romney, the first Mormon major-party presidential nominee.

Women in mink coats came from Georgia to knock on doors for Jimmy Carter’s Peanut Brigade.

Billy Shaheen, Carter’s campaign manager and now-husband, said it was “the funniest goddamn thing in the world.”

Beyond the state’s storied history, there’s a practical side at risk, say locals.

The president’s new proposed schedule reduces the intimacy of a process that allowed candidates to traverse the state without a plane and gave politically patriotic Americans the chance to grill candidates in their living rooms or at the local gym.

Democrats warn that Biden’s changes could have catastrophic consequences for a party that’s worked for decades to turn the state purple. The president made the decision despite a personal appeal from New Hampshire.

“The delegation spoke with the president, he listened, and then he submitted a proposal that totally disregarded it,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said.

After the White House’s decision, Shaheen and Hassan skipped the congressional ball.

Shaheen said it would have worried some of his voters. I thought it was more important to focus on New Hampshire.

The White House stunned the New Hampshire Democratic Party two weeks ago when it recommended removing Iowa from the early states, placing South Carolina first, then Nevada and New Hampshire on the same day, and ending with Georgia and Michigan.

South Carolina hadn’t asked to be first, so officials there were surprised to get the spot.

Biden sent a letter with his recommendation, explaining that Black voters were “the backbone of the Democratic Party” but had been pushed to the back of the early primary process. Most Democratic primary voters in South Carolina are black.

Many doubt the White House’s motivation was diversity.

“This is a blatantly outrageous move. Neil Levesque, director of the nonpartisan New Hampshire Institute of Politics, said it shows the president’s true colors. “He may be rigging the election to his advantage.”

Levesque called South Carolina a “party boss state” because, after coming in fifth place in the 2020 New Hampshire primary, Biden got “one endorsement and he wins.” He was referring to Rep. Jim Clyburn, the South Carolina powerhouse whose backing put Biden on the path to the presidency.

Levesque charged that the decision had nothing to do with giving voters from diverse backgrounds an earlier say in the process. The north is more diverse than the south. This isn’t about Hawaii’s diversity. It’s about candidates manipulating the system to win.

Levesque made the argument in a conference room inside the institute, near a photo of John F. Kennedy with this 1960 quote: “I like a country and a state where the politicians are not the bosses, where the editors are not the bosses, where the publishers are not the bosses, but where the people are; and I think we have a chance to show it tomorrow.”

What will change in New Hampshire? Democrats say they won’t back South Carolina and can’t. Republicans must change a state law requiring New Hampshire to hold its primary seven days before any similar contest. Chris Sununu, New Hampshire’s Republican governor, called it “dead on arrival.” Nobody disagreed.

Kathy Sullivan said, “Oh, we’re going first” without looking up from stirring her New England black tea, the last caffeinated bag at Manchester’s Red Arrow Diner that morning.

Longtime New Hampshire DNC member Sullivan worried that imposing “the death penalty” on candidates still campaigning in New Hampshire would shift power to the White House.

It gives control and a voice to a few in Washington, she said.

The DNC can punish noncompliant states and future presidential candidates who campaign in New Hampshire by refusing to seat their delegates or allowing them to debate. A DNC panel can determine sanctions, but the DNC hasn’t detailed them yet.

As Democrats in the purple state are hobbled, Republicans will zigzag throughout New Hampshire, spending money on messaging, filling town halls and house parties, and drawing independents.

Billy Shaheen: “We’re not waiting.” “We built the Democratic Party for 50 years.” We won’t quit.”

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