Lebanon High School seniors Keenan Leuthauser, left, Angeleena Davis and Carrie Laramie listen to former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh speak at the high school library on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019, in Lebanon, N.H. Walsh, a conservative talk radio host from Illinois, had filed for the Republican New Hampshire presidential primary earlier in the day. Davis asked a question about women's reproductive rights, and Walsh said he considers abortion to be "murder." Members of Lebanon High's AP U.S. government and politics class had invited Walsh to the school after seeing Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren in Hanover, N.H. (Valley News - Jennifer Hauck) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.
Lebanon High School seniors Keenan Leuthauser, left, Angeleena Davis and Carrie Laramie listen to former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh speak at the high school library on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019, in Lebanon, N.H. Walsh, a conservative talk radio host from Illinois, had filed for the Republican New Hampshire presidential primary earlier in the day. Davis asked a question about women's reproductive rights, and Walsh said he considers abortion to be "murder." Members of Lebanon High's AP U.S. government and politics class had invited Walsh to the school after seeing Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren in Hanover, N.H. (Valley News - Jennifer Hauck) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. Credit: Valley News — Jennifer Hauck

Joe Walsh files to challenge Trump in New Hampshire

CONCORD — Former Illinois congressman Joe Walsh filed Thursday for the New Hampshire presidential primary, officially giving President Donald Trump two major Republican primary challengers in the early voting state.

Also filing Thursday on the Democratic side was former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who launched what he acknowledged to be a “Hail Mary” bid for the party’s nomination, testing whether voters are open to a new candidates less than three months before voting on an already crowded field.

Walsh has centered his long-shot bid squarely on Trump. He’s become a vocal critic of the president, saying Trump is unfit for the office.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld also filed this week to challenge Trump in the New Hampshire primary.

Both Walsh and Weld have struggled so far to have large-scale fundraising success. Another would-be primary challenger, former South Carolina governor and congressman Mark Sanford, dropped his bid Tuesday.

Patrick, raised in poverty on the South Side of Chicago, made history in 2007 as the first black governor of Massachusetts. He has close ties to former President Barack Obama and his network of advisers, which could help him quickly establish contacts and raise money in the critical states that begin voting in February.

Patrick said he’s betting there’s a narrow window to shake up a Democratic primary that has stagnated in recent months with four persistent front-runners, each of whom has glaring vulnerabilities. At a time of bitter partisan divides, the 63-year-old Patrick is positioning himself as a political leader who can work on progressive causes without alienating moderates who worry about the pace of change being advocated by some Democratic candidates.

“But I think that there has to be more than the big solutions,” he told reporters at the Statehouse in New Hampshire, where he registered to appear on the ballot in the first-in-the-nation primary, expected to be held on Feb. 11. “We have to use those solutions to heal us.”