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In New Hampshire, Sanders counting on youth vote

DURHAM, N.H. - They were feeling the Bern late Sunday afternoon in the Memorial Union conference room at the University of New Hampshire.

DURHAM, N.H. - They were feeling the Bern late Sunday afternoon in the Memorial Union conference room at the University of New Hampshire.

Five students, MacBooks flipped open, entered voter contacts for Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign between cellphone calls to remind identified supporters to vote for him Tuesday in the Democratic primary. A "dorm storm" canvass was set for later.

They are shock troops in the army of young Democrats who have helped transform Sanders, the 74-year-old Vermont socialist, from a long shot to a competitive presidential candidate. Polls indicate he is favored to beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire.

"I like Bernie's idea of taking big money out of politics so that corporations can't just buy politicians," said Sarah King-Mayes, 18, a freshman from Massachusetts, who has volunteered three or four days a week on the Sanders campaign since last fall. She considers Clinton too close to the corporate establishment.

The generation gap with Sanders has posed a challenge for the Clinton campaign, galling supporters who say that Clinton's long record of accomplishing progressive goals - not to mention her strong chance to become the first woman president - should be inspiring enthusiasm among young voters.

In Iowa's caucuses last week, Sanders defeated Clinton among voters ages 17 to 29 by 70 percentage points (84-14), greater than the 43-percentage-point margin by which Barack Obama won the demographic there in 2008. A recent poll taken by the University of Massachusetts-Lowell found 87 percent of millennial voters likely to participate in the New Hampshire primary planning to vote for Sanders.

Clinton dominated among older voters in Iowa, who are most likely to turn out for voting, and won among women overall with 53 percent.

Many of the youngest prospective voters in New Hampshire said in interviews that they found Sanders genuine, from his rumpled clothes to his mussed white hair and statistics-laden analysis of the "rigged economy." They also like his promises of a single-payer health system, free tuition at public colleges and universities, paid family leave, and limits on Wall Street. Clinton? Many said they respected her but considered her too incremental in approach.

As the New Hampshire campaign waned, Clinton and her allies stepped up the gender-based appeals and targeted young women in several college stops.

At a town hall for New England College students Saturday in Henniker, a young woman asked Clinton why some people think she is too "drilled and rehearsed." Clinton said there is a "much greater burden on women running for elected office." She cited a friend's blog post that said Sanders was appealing to men because of his loud speech and messy appearance. "I'm thinking to myself, 'Like that would work for any women we know.' " The truth, Clinton said, is that "I do have a somewhat narrower path to walk."

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, campaigning for Clinton in Concord, said she wanted to remind young women that the fight for equality continues. "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help each other," she said.

Feminist icon Gloria Steinem said on Bill Maher's comedy show that young women were following Sanders to meet guys. "The boys are with Bernie," Steinem said. She later apologized.

"They're getting stuck in a fight they've been in so long that they can't see past it," said Quincy Abramson, 19, a UNH freshman from Concord. "To me, feminism is about choices, and women shouldn't be made to feel bad about their choices. I believe Bernie is better. Picking Hillary just because of her gender is sexism."

At a rally Saturday at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, Sanders denounced "corrupt" campaign financing and a "broken criminal justice system," and said that to win, he needed the support of "young people who have never been involved in the political process."

"There is nothing we cannot accomplish," the senator said, his voice slightly raspy.

Sanders' emphasis on issues like climate change and college costs resonated with 20-year-olds Allina Bennett and Eliza Giles, who are roommates at the University of Vermont in Burlington.

"He's a really, really respectful guy who kind of sticks to his guns," said Bennett, who is from Rindge and planned to submit an absentee ballot for Sanders.

Both women said they would support Clinton if she were the Democratic nominee, but they viewed Sanders as the more progressive option.

And while it would mean something to them to elect the first female president, "I think it's important to vote for someone based on what they state and believe, not just what gender they are," Bennett said.

Emily Brisson, a 21-year-old Franklin Pierce student and Sanders volunteer from Lancaster, called Clinton "awful." She did not like her initial opposition to gay marriage and said she felt the former first lady had been "unprofessional toward other women." Asked what she meant, Brisson brought up Monica Lewinsky.

Clinton also "plays the gender card when she shouldn't," Brisson said, referring to Clinton's suggestion in a debate last Wednesday that as the first woman president, she couldn't be part of the political establishment. "Are you saying because you have female reproductive organs, you are not part of the establishment?" Brisson said.

Clinton has had a long public career - an advocate for children's rights, an attorney for a House committee investigating Watergate, first lady of Arkansas and of the nation, senator from New York, President Obama's secretary of state. "I believe she's the most qualified person, with the most experience, running for president," said Mindy Wittock, 34, a sculptor from Manchester, who was attending a Clinton rally Monday afternoon at the city's community college. "It's not even close."

Wittock also said "it would be pretty great" to see Clinton become the first woman president. "It's about time," she said.

tfitzgerald@phillynews.com

215-854-2718@tomfitzgerald

www.philly.com/bigtent

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