Analysis of Huntsman's Campaign in NH

One of the most sought after states for a presidential candidate to win over during the presidential primaries every four years is that of our own state, the state of New Hampshire. It is a win in New Hampshire that can potentially lead to a surge in the polls in other state primaries that follow New Hampshire (South Carolina, Florida, Michigan, etc.), as seen this year with former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney’s win in New Hampshire, and his subsequent title as the current front-runner over fellow Republican candidates Rick Santorum; a former senator of Pennsylvania, Newt Gingrich; the former Speaker of the House, and Ron Paul; a Congressman from Texas. During the presidential primaries in New Hampshire, the Republican hopefuls also included two other major candidates, Rick Perry; the current governor of the state of Texas, and Jon Huntsman; the former governor of Utah and the former Ambassador to China. Other minor Republican candidates include Buddy Roehmer, Fred Karger and Gary Johnson.

In this particular round of the New Hampshire presidential primaries, according to results posted from the New York Times, Mitt Romney won over the most New Hampshire voters with 97,532 votes (39.3%) (New Hampshire). In second and third are Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman, with 56,848 (22.9%) and 41,945 (16.9%), respectively (New Hampshire). The top five was rounded out with Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich tied at around 9.4% and Rick Perry at 0.7% (New Hampshire). While he ranked third in the state, this was not the ideal rank of presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman, and despite making commitments to do well in the next presidential primary, South Carolina, he eventually pulled out of the race for president on January 15th, 2012, and endorsed front-runner Mitt Romney. This paper will explore the idea of, had he won the state of New Hampshire and placed first as opposed to third, would Jon Huntsman still be in the race for the Republican nomination, and would he be performing 

Jon Huntsman entered the race for the Republican presidential nominee in 2011 (Jon Huntsman Campaign). It was highly speculated that Huntsman would run for the Republican presidential bid against President Obama in 2012, particularly after he had resigned as the Ambassador to China in early 2011 under the Obama Administration (Jon Huntsman Campaign). In tribute to former President Reagan, whom entered the race at the same location, Huntsman formally entered the race in June of 2011 at Liberty State Park with the Statue of Liberty in the background. At the event, he spoke,

“Now, behind me is our most famous symbol of the promise of America. President Reagan launched the 1980 general election campaign from this very spot. It was a time of trouble, worry and difficulty. He assured us we could "make America great again," and through his leadership, he did. Today, I stand in his shadow as well as the shadow of this magnificent monument to our liberty … This is the hour when we choose our future. I'm Jon Huntsman, and I'm running for President of the United States (Jon Huntsman 2012).”

One of Huntsman’s strategies was to parallel himself and his views with that of President Reagan, after having served the Reagan Administration in the past and considering himself and his views to be very similar to his. This technique has often been used by Republican candidates successfully due to Reagan’s relatively positive appeal to conservative voters.

Jon Huntsman often claimed himself to be the most experienced candidate on the field, in with a focus on experience within foreign policy, in which no other presidential candidate truly possessed. In a statement to students at George Washington University, he said, “You're not going to find any other candidate who has spent any time overseas -- maybe, you know, a trip here or there -- who has been a practitioner of foreign policy (Foreign).” Huntsman’s past experiences include having been governor of Utah from January 2005 to 2009 (elected twice), the Ambassador to China from 2009 to 2011 under the Obama Administration, and Ambassador to Singapore from 1992 to 1993 under the Bush Sr. Administration. (Summers). He had also formerly served as a CEO in his father’s, Jon Huntsman Sr., company, the Huntsman Corporation, worked an as assistant to the Reagan Administration, was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce under George H. W. Bush, and Deputy United States Trade Representative under George W. Bush (Summers).

Out of all candidates who campaigned in New Hampshire (which includes all those candidates aforementioned within this paper), it is clear that Jon Huntsman practically held center stage. After claiming to have held more than one-hundred-twenty events in New Hampshire alone, Huntsman became the candidate who had the most focus on New Hampshire. It was in his mindset that by winning over the voters in the state of New Hampshire, he could eventually win the entire nation and ultimately the Republican presidential nomination. He would often tell the audiences that came to his events that, “We're going to win New Hampshire (Amira),” or "I'm just going to tell you right now, we're going to win this primary. I like our chances right here (Amira)."

And while yes, it could have been possible for him to have won over the state, but could winning over the entire nation and becoming the Republican presidential nominee had been an attainable goal for him, though, given the circumstances? Huntsman was heavily criticized by political analysts because, while he did perform very well in New Hampshire in comparison to his fellow candidates, he hardly campaigned much at all in any other states, and barely held overall national ratings above 3% (RealClearPolitics). In particular, he did not participate in campaigning in the state of Iowa, a state where the caucuses are held prior to the New Hampshire presidential primaries. In response to this, he said, “The spotlight is going to be on you [New Hampshire]. And you always rise up to the occasion – having done your due diligence, having looked at all the candidates – and you upend conventional wisdom … I’m excited about what lies around the corner (Reston).”

His decision to stick to New Hampshire only was an interesting tactic and choice of campaign route, to say the least. It is similar to the last Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s strategy, although unlike Huntsman, McCain also campaigned in states other than New Hampshire. It worked well for McCain, but for Huntsman? The turnout probably was not what he was expecting. So would Jon Huntsman have been the right candidate to win the New Hampshire presidential primaries, would he still be in the race, and if so, would he be performing well? It really depends on your point of view. Huntsman supports would say yes, while skeptics may have a different point of view entirely.

Experience wise, you could go out and say that Huntsman had the most diverse experience of any candidate out on the field. Most of all the other candidates (Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, etc.) have only been governors, senators or congressmen, while Huntsman was a successful governor elected twice, ambassador to both China and Singapore, CEO of his father’s company, and had worked under several president’s administrations (Reagan, the Bushes’, etc.).

In terms of political stance, one could say that Huntsman was the ideal candidate; conservative, while still maintaining a lot of values that moderates and liberals can appreciate. Considering the fact that he even worked for our current president, President Barack Obama, it is clear that he would be able to cross party lines efficiently. He also has experience in foreign policy that no other candidate could truly compete against. Also, if you included all of his personal connections with other well-known politicians (Sarah Palin, Tom Ridge and Barack Obama, as examples), you might go as far to say that he’d be the ideal candidate, and therefore should have won New Hampshire, and would at this very moment, be campaigning in Missouri, Illinois and Louisiana.

On the other hand, many could say that Huntsman would not have been the right candidate to win New Hampshire, much less the Republican presidential bid. Perhaps the biggest issue with extreme conservatives is Huntsman’s political stances. Despite stating numerous times that he is a true conservative Republican, Huntsman does have many liberal political stances. For example, Huntsman supports equal rights to same-sex couples, believes in global warming and evolution, and wishes to seek alternative energy sources.

Many conservatives are also weary of Huntsman becoming president after him having worked under our president now. Who is to say that Huntsman could be exactly like President Obama? However, the biggest issue would be his overall popularity and how well known he was, or lack thereof. Huntsman’s strategy of singularly performing in New Hampshire was, essentially, a flop. While yes, he did perform well in New Hampshire, many voters outside of New Hampshire did not even know his name, and considering the 10,000 signature requirement to make it into a ballot, would he have even been able to do so in states like South Carolina, Florida or Michigan?

There is truly no surefire way to figure out if Huntsman would have been the ideal candidate to win the New Hampshire presidential primaries because, the fact is, he ultimately lost first place to Mitt Romney. As a former supporter of Jon Huntsman, in my own opinion, I feel that Huntsman deserved to win New Hampshire after having campaigned so much within the state. I can agree with most skeptics, though, that his decision to focus solely on New Hampshire and no other state ultimately led to his downfall. So, to answer the question I stated previously in this paper, yes, Huntsman should have won New Hampshire, but no, he would not be performing well. The win in New Hampshire could have slightly boosted his numbers up national, but when you look at the statistics, Mitt Romney practically owns the Northeast and West, Santorum the mid-west and south, and Newt Gingrich the Deep South. Huntsman (along with Ron Paul for that matter) would have no true home court to complete well in.

Unfortunately because of his decision to back out of the presidential bid, I have significantly lost interest in the presidential election overall, having no other interesting candidate to look forward to, although if I had to make a decision, it would be Ron Paul, (although I have always been secretly been a Sarah Palin supporter).

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