Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is working for Hillary Clinton in New England.
In New Hampshire — where a recent poll shows Donald Trump leads — and Maine, where Trump is bidding for at least one electoral vote, Sanders urges undecided citizens to “get out the vote” and save Clinton’s campaign.
“This has been an ugly and distasteful campaign and people cannot wait for it to be over,” Sanders told the crowd at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. “This campaign is not about Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, believe it or not,” Sanders said. “Shock of all shocks, this campaign is about you,” he said.
Sanders, who had strong support from millennials in the primary, is trying to help Clinton among that demographic. He was also stumping for Maggie Hassan, New Hampshire’s Democratic governor and a candidate for U.S. Senate.
“I don’t want to make you all nervous here in New Hampshire, but you have a lot of responsibility on your shoulders,” he said. “You are a battleground state, and the future of this country may rest on your four electoral votes for president and on who you elect for the United States Senate.”
He discussed the same talking points he had pushed during his own candidacy, including free college tuition, a living wage, and waging a war against the top one percent.
Following his talk at Plymouth State University, Sanders addressed another crowd at Dartmouth College in Hanover, before ending the day with a third rally in Portland, Maine.
The rallies are part of Sanders’s planned coast-to-coast trip that will take him through 12 states and end in California.
Sanders also held a “Get Out the Vote” rally in Portland, Maine Tuesday evening; a state where Clinton and Trump are in a statistical tie. Maine splits its 4 electoral votes based on the state’s two congressional districts. The winner of the first district wins three electoral votes, while the winner of the second district wins one electoral vote.
“Hillary Clinton will win Maine if there is a high voter turnout, she will lose if there’s low voter turnout,” Sanders said at Deering High School, a phrase he has spoken several times before. He added, “those four electoral votes could literally make the difference as to who the next president of the United States is.”
Sanders also reached out to blue collar workers — a demographic Trump has done well with — and attempted to convicne them that Clinton will help bring back jobs they’ve lost as a result of outsourcing and mill closures; a point Trump has laid out a plan for achieveing as president.
“We can make America safer, and more productive,” and “create many millions of good-paying jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure,” Sanders said. “That is what Hillary Clinton wants to do. That is what we must do.”
Sanders won Maine by nearly 30 percentage points during the Democratic caucuses against Clinton back in March.
A newly released Los Angeles Times tracking poll has Trump leading Clinton by 5.4 percent.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter and Periscope @AdelleNaz
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