An open umbrella fixed to a Christmas tree stand covered in buttons featuring a blitz of Bernie Sanders’s slogans and pictures greeted politically curious visitors as they walked into Sweeney Hall at NHTI on Tuesday.
“Medicare for All,” read one.
“Tuition Free Education,” read another.
“Polar Bears for Bernie,” read one more.
At Sanders’s Concord town hall and at two more in Londonderry and Manchester, those who came to listen to the senator heard many of those points, sans polar bears. His supporters embraced his big ideas and cast off doubts about declining poll numbers, while others said they’ve started eying other liberal candidates.
Bennett Weiss, who traveled from Newburgh, N.Y., was selling the buttons.
Rain poured off Weiss’s white tent as the self-described “old-school Democrat” laughed off a question about Sanders’s electability.
“Electability? He’s the most electable by far!” said Weiss, a retired jewelry maker. “This whole electability thing is a ruse.”
After Sanders’s last event of the day, a night rally in Manchester, Mbake Sarr said he drove an hour and a half from Winston, Mass., and waited in line in hopes of meeting the senator.
“I think electability is a term that’s used to suppress women and people of color,” said Sarr. “I’ve seen articles that say, ‘Is Elizabeth Warren electable?’ and I’m pretty sure she’s electable – she’s been a great senator.”
Sarr, who said he is excited to be old enough to vote in 2020, plans to cast his first-ever ballot for Sanders in the Democratic primary in his state, he said. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii are on his radar too, he added.
Before the Manchester rally, Meg Pokhrel, who lives in Manchester and immigrated to the U.S. from Bhutan, acknowledged that other candidates share some of Sanders’s stances, but said that Sanders’s past sets him apart.
“The one who started the idea has the most experience, the most knowledge about it,” said Pokhrel.
As a guitarist wooed supporters and anticipation grew inside the room in which Sanders was set to speak, Pokhrel, who said he voted for Sanders in 2016 and plans to again, held his daughter’s hand at the back of the crowd.
“I really like Medicare for all,” said Pokhrel, who added that he often cares for people without insurance while working as a medical assistant.
“I have insurance,” said Pokhrel. “It doesn’t cover anything. I pay a lot of money.”
Connor Spern wasn’t sold on Sanders when she walked into the Concord event. Spern, a Texan living in Concord who was sporting a subdued cowboy hat, said she was favoring the more moderate Democratic hopeful from her homestate, Beto O’Rourke.
“I want everything Bernie wants, I just think he might be too far on the economy to get anything productive,” said Spern, who said she works with the Concord homeless community and has student-loan debt from the classes she’s taking at NHTI.
As Sanders took audience questions, Spern sat on the edge of her seat and wiggled her hand in the air like an elementary schooler eager to answer a multiplication question in class. Sanders didn’t call on her for a question, but the answers she got were enough to change her mind.
“I try to kid myself that I’m on the fence,” said Spern as she left the town hall, “but I always forget how much I love Bernie.”
Sanders’s careful, unscripted consideration of questions put her fears about ineffectiveness and gridlock to rest, she said.
The minds of Ashley Taber and Donald Long of Manchester were more deeply set. As they waited in line together ahead of Sanders’s Manchester rally, a Sanders staffer came up to them.
“Do you guys love Bernie? Are you guys big Bernie supporters?” asked the staffer.
“We love Bernie,” replied Long. “But we love Elizabeth more.”
Both Taber and Long said they supported Sanders in 2016, but support Warren for 2020.
Taber had an idea of why Warren might be chipping into Sanders’s base.
“She’s putting out policies regularly and they’re smart enough to get people’s attention,” said Taber, who added that Warren’s gender is a plus.
Back under his tent ahead of the Concord event, Weiss – who’s buttons sold $2 for one, $5 for three, or free with a donation to Sanders – admitted he liked a few candidates who shared Sanders’s views, particularly Gabbard and Warren. But for Weiss, no one tops Bernie.
“The difference is Bernie has been consistent, not just in his talk, but in his action,” said Weiss.
Still, as Warren has risen in national polls, Sanders has fallen. Weiss blamed biased media for Sanders fall, but he isn’t worried.
“There’s time, people will come back.”