Three hundred and forty New Hampshire residents have signed petitions, organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), asking all the presidential candidates to share their plans for reducing the risks of a nuclear war. UCS will send the petitions to the candidates today. The request originally appeared in an open letter to the candidates signed by 30 New Hampshire residents and published as an ad in six New Hampshire newspapers on December 5. Since then, other New Hampshire residents have added their names.
The petitions’ signers represent the 84 percent of New Hampshire residents that a University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll found want the candidates to lay out their views on nuclear weapons. The poll found that New Hampshire residents are uncomfortable with current U.S. nuclear weapons policies, including those that let the president order a nuclear strike without consulting anyone and allow the United States to use nuclear weapons first in a conflict.
New Hampshire residents and now eight New Hampshire cities (Alstead, Dover, Durham, Exeter, Lee, Peterborough, Portsmouth, Warner) are part of a growing national grassroots movement that seeks to reduce the risks of a nuclear war. Municipalities, state legislatures, religious organizations and public interest groups across the country are even adopting resolutions calling on President Donald Trump and Congress to change dangerous, longstanding nuclear weapons policies as part of the “Back from the Brink: The Call to Prevent Nuclear War” initiative launched by the Union of Concerned Scientists and Physicians for Social Responsibility in 2017.
New Hampshire is at the forefront of this movement. The state has the second most municipalities that have passed resolutions calling for the prevention of nuclear war.