Karoline Leavitt: Driving the Trump Train in New Hampshire

On Wednesday, May 11, the Dartmouth College Republicans United (CRs) welcomed New Hampshire congressional candidate and former White House Assistant Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt to campus for the last stop of her statewide “Wake up, Gen Z!” lecture tour. Leavitt visited campus earlier this year in the fall to speak alongside Congressman Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) and political consultant Alex Bruesewitz. That event, which filled Moore Hall, generated notable campus uproar, as left-wing campus groups circulated defamatory flyers and organized a large protest outside the venue. The atmosphere this time, however, could not have been more different, as Leavitt addressed roughly ten students and locals in an intimate round-table discussion.

Leavitt is just 25 years old, and her energy was evident from the beginning as she introduced her background. A New Hampshire native, Leavitt attended St. Anselm College on a softball scholarship, where she became fascinated by politics. While working at the local television station WMUR-TV as a student, she applied for—on whitehouse.gov—and obtained a position in the Trump administration. She served first as a Presidential Writer and later as the Assistant Press Secretary. In her lecture, Leavitt emphasized the significance of Generation Z as a voting bloc and the importance of including young voices in politics, as well as her concerns about the country’s divisive trajectory. After a few minutes, Leavitt invited attendees to ask questions.

Discussion topics included innovation, gas prices, foreign policy, and abortion. From her answers to policy questions, there were no surprises. After all, Leavitt served in the Trump administration and endorses the Trump agenda. Her platform checks off every Republican box and is largely indistinguishable from countless other congressional candidates across the nation. From her remarks at the discussion, it is clear her strategy—at least for the primary—is to draw support from a hard-line conservative base.

For example, Leavitt firmly declared that she “support[s] the overturning of Roe v. Wade.” She lamented that Democrats have won the messaging war on abortion and stated that the recently leaked opinion in the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court case, if correct, will return rights to the states and grant voters more power to elect politicians with similar values. This position is undoubtedly contentious, especially in a swing state. During a period in which Democrats have seen their popularity suffer due to associations with school closures and lockdowns, it is a concern that independents—who comprise a 42% plurality of the NH electorate—will revert to supporting Democrats over the question of abortion. In December, only 4% of NH voters noted abortion as a top political priority; to flip her district and win in the general election, Leavitt should hope it stays that way.

On gas prices and energy, Leavitt’s position was solid and in line with her Republican colleagues. She criticized the Biden administration’s efforts to undermine U.S. energy independence by suspending drilling on federal lands as well as the Keystone XL pipeline. Likewise, she voiced support for market solutions that increase renewable energy technologies and expressed her discontent over the Democrats’ current monopoly over environmental issues.

As mentioned, Leavitt’s positions are quite standard for a Republican, especially in 2022. When asked about topics she was not completely versed in—such as unaffordable prescription drug prices—she effortlessly deployed her White House communications prowess to respond and sound intelligent while doing so. That is not a criticism; Leavitt is only four years older than me, and I would not expect her to be a policy wonk. 

In turn, I was more interested in learning about her story, and I asked her who was most influential in her decision to run for office. Leavitt attributed inspiration to her former boss, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY), whom she views as a role model for young women in politics, as well as to her family. She also expressed that many people on Capitol Hill doubted her ambition to run and told her to wait for her turn, to which her reply was: “Wait for who?”

The event concluded with an awkward comment from College Republicans President Chloe Ezzo ’22, who accused me of being “fake news” as the discussion came to an end. Normally, I would not report on this bizarre remark, as my last intention is to portray journalists in this country as victims. However, a similar awkward exchange with a journalist occurred at the previous College Republicans’ event with James O’Keefe. There, at the microphone during the Q&A, former CRs President Griffin Mackey ’22 directed the audience’s attention to a reporter for The Dartmouth in order to identify and confront “fake news” in the crowd. The Review hopes that this hostile pattern of behavior from College Republicans leaders towards student reporters does not continue.

To date, Leavitt has received endorsements from three members of Congress: Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Reps. Stefanik and Cawthorn. Last fall, along with visiting Dartmouth, Cawthorn campaigned with Leavitt. Cawthorn is known for firebrand rhetoric and, in previous weeks, has been subject to embarrassing leaks of photos and videos. Given Leavitt’s political background and competence at a young age, I asked her whether she thinks it is an asset to associate with controversial lawmakers such as Cawthorn. Channeling Kellyanne Conway’s communications mastery, she skillfully answered the question without answering the question:

“I am proud to have earned many endorsements from many people at both the state and national levels, and most importantly, I am proud to have earned support from the people of this state. That is why I’ve raised more money than any of my Republican opponents from the great people of New Hampshire, more than double actually. So that’s what I’m focused on: Earning the support of voters, and we’re proving that every day.”

Overall, when speaking candidly about her background and goals, Leavitt is eloquent. She would bring a fresh face to the aging halls of Congress, and her drive and zeal are unmistakable. With disaffection over apathetic career politicians, those traits are undoubtedly positive. On paper, however, she has adopted a generic hardline Republican platform, presumably to court Trump’s base as she faces a competitive Republican contest in September.

Despite holding “first-in-the-nation” status for presidential primaries, New Hampshire’s congressional primaries are among the latest in the nation. With fewer than eight weeks between the Republican primary and general election, Leavitt will face the tough task of re-orienting outreach efforts from her current devout GOP base to the more moderate NH electorate, should she win the nomination. Ultimately, as Leavitt enters the summer campaigning period, she must determine if her unequivocal endorsement of the Trump agenda can drive the Republican turnout necessary for victory in the general election, or whether it’s time to start reaching out to a broader cohort. In an R+1 district currently held by a Democrat, she might want to consider the latter.