With three ice cream socials, Sanders campaign 'not taking anything for granted"

WINDHAM, N.H. — At the third of three ice cream socials hosted by the Sanders campaign on Sunday afternoon, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders spoke to a standing-room-only crowd of several hundred voters at a public high school in Windham, New Hampshire. 

The speech marked the sixth appearance for Sanders during his two-day visit to New Hampshire in the aftermath of the first debates. While other candidates including former Vice President Joe Biden and California Senator Kamala Harris were fundraising in the Bay Area over the weekend, the action-packed schedule from Sanders in the southeastern corner of the Granite State showed just how hard the Vermont Senator, who defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 60.4 percent to 38.0 percent in the state four years ago, is working to win the first-in-the-nation primary in 2020.

"We're not taking anything for granted," said Sanders campaign deputy state director and communications director Carli Stevenson. "Obviously we had great success here last time. We're not going to rest on our laurels. We want to show the people of New Hampshire that we respect them. We know that they have a lot of choices."

In the cafeteria at Windham High School in Windham, N.H., Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders speaks to supporters from New Hampshire and Massachusetts on Sunday at his campaign's third ice cream social of the afternoon.

Stevenson said that voters should choose Sanders and not another progressive candidate like Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren because "Bernie's ideas are shaping the campaign." She said his ideas create a "very clear contrast" with President Donald Trump but declined to comment on whether a female candidate or a younger candidate would make an even clearer contrast.

Although 16 months from a possible general election matchup, Stevenson also cited Sanders' head-to-head polling numbers against Trump. "We think he is the candidate that is best situated to beat Trump."

In his speech, Sanders delivered the same message, telling voters that he is the best candidate to defeat Trump and vowing that he would end what he called almost a half-century of attacks on low- and middle-income people. "For the last 45 years, there has been a war against the working class of this country, from which I come, and I am saying, enough is enough," he said.

As campaign staffers wheeled in carts of folding chairs to more than double the seating capacity in the cafeteria, Ben and Jerry's co-founder and Sanders campaign national co-chair Ben Cohen warmed up the crowd. Cohen too claimed that "poll after poll after poll" shows Sanders leading Trump. As the Vermont Senator came to the microphone, Cohen led the crowd in a chant of "Bernie beats Trump."

Ben and Jerry's co-founder and Sanders campaign national co-chair Ben Cohen introduced Sanders, leading the crowd in a chant of "Bernie beats Trump" as the Vermont Senator stepped to the microphone.

After Sanders addressed the crowd, Lesley Phillips, a Massachusetts delegate for Sanders at the Democratic National Convention in 2016 and a member of the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee, similarly said that she was a "big Elizabeth Warren supporter," but is backing Sanders once again "because Bernie is the one that beats Trump, the one that Trump is afraid of."

Phillips called New Hampshire, Iowa and her home state of Massachusetts, which votes on Super Tuesday, "critical" for Sanders. She hoped that the Sanders campaign would open an office in Massachusetts sooner than they did in 2016, when they narrowly lost the liberal state to Clinton 50.1 percent to 48.7 percent.

In the meantime, as "the campaign itself is focusing on the first four states and California," Phillips said she is part of a "network" of Sanders supporters from 2016 that is laying the groundwork for his 2020 effort in the Bay State.

Massachusetts voters were well-represented at the event, located only miles from the state border and easily accessible along Interstate 93. Peter Buckley-McClure, 72, of Tewksbury, Massachusetts described himself as "100 percent behind Bernie" and said that "I'm as enthusiastic as I was last time," but admitted it was "hard to say" whether others felt the same way.

Joey McIntosh, 31, of Lowell, Massachusetts believed that "the antagonism of the Trump campaign" would energize Sanders supporters. He said that Sanders' ideas have received "more validation" since his last campaign and described Sanders as "truthful and honest."

Buckley-McClure, a lifelong Democrat, watched the first debates and saw the exchange between Harris and Biden but was not swayed. He expressed dissatisfaction with the two-night event as a made-for-television spectacle. "Kamala Harris? That's nice — got a couple points," he said. "It's like a game show up there for me."

For Buckley-McClure, who choked up during the interview, Sanders was different. "He is the greatest man I've known in my lifetime," he said. "Everything he believes in, I believe in."

This work is made possible by the Russell H. Bostert Memorial Fellowship at Williams College.