(This story was updated July 12 at 9:15 p.m.)
[P]ORTSMOUTH, N.H. — After weeks of withholding his official support, Bernie Sanders endorsed Hillary Clinton for president Tuesday.
“Secretary Clinton has won the Democratic nominating process, and I congratulate her for that,” Sanders said in a rhetorical shift from recent weeks, when the democratic socialist suggested a national convention fight could change the outcome.
“She will be the Democratic nominee for president,” Sanders told a crowd in a sweaty school gym in Portsmouth. “And I intend to do everything I can to make certain she will be the next president of the United States.”
Sanders spoke first, with Clinton at his side. The Vermont senator spoke highly of Clinton, listing achievements from her years as first lady, U.S. senator from New York and secretary of state under President Barack Obama.
He also spoke repeatedly about the need to defeat the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump.
“While Hillary Clinton supports making our tax code fairer, Donald Trump wants to give hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks to the very wealthiest people in this country,” he said. “His reckless economic policies will not only exacerbate income and wealth inequality, they would increase our national debt by trillions of dollars.”
Ticking off the signature issues he trumpeted throughout the primary season — including campaign finance reform and environmental regulation — Sanders repeatedly assured his supporters in the crowd that “Hillary Clinton understands.” He said he was “proud to stand with her.”
In a departure from his campaign stump speeches, Sanders read his remarks off a teleprompter, receiving loud cheers from people in the crowd, many of whom held Clinton campaign signs reading “Stronger Together.”
When Clinton approached the podium after Sanders’ remarks, she looked relieved, telling the crowd, “I can’t help reflect how much more enjoyable this election is going to be now that we are on the same side.”
While Sanders vouched for Clinton in his remarks, she also offered a pitch rife with taglines and proposals in line with those of the Vermont senator, often introducing ideas with the words “Just like Bernie …”
“Bernie is right, $7.25 an hour is a starvation wage,” Clinton said. Minutes later, she called for automatic voter registration, insisting it was not “a radical idea.”
She said voters should have easy access to the polls, with states providing at least 20 days for in-person voting. She called for greater donor transparency in elections and pledged to create a small-donor matching system.
“Sen. Sanders and I will be working to get unaccountable money out of politics and the voices of everyday Americans back in,” Clinton said. “Because as Bernie has said, this isn’t a progressive issue, it’s not a conservative issue, it’s an American issue.”
Clinton promised that if elected, she would work to institute a federal jobs program larger than the New Deal, oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership and appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Citizens United, a court decision that allowed large sums to flow into political campaigns.
Since the primary season ended in June, the Clinton and Sanders camps have been speaking daily in efforts to heal primary wounds and bring the Vermont senator fully on board. Clinton’s recently updated college tuition proposal — which borrows heavily from Sanders’ plan — was seen as the most effective olive branch in winning Sanders over.
“This is a major initiative that will revolutionize higher education in this country and improve the lives of millions,” Sanders said of the college plan. “Think of what it will mean when every child in this country, regardless of the income of their family, knows that if they study hard and do well in school — yes, they will be able to get a college education and leave school without debt.”
The event started with the Pledge of Allegiance, after which a number of speakers gave warmup remarks, praising both candidates and calling for unity.
The speakers included a number of Sanders supporters, including environmentalist Bill McKibben and Jim Dean, who chairs the liberal political action committee Democracy for America. It was started when Dean’s brother, former Gov. Howard Dean, ran for president in 2004. Although the organization endorsed Sanders, Howard Dean has been a longtime supporter of Clinton.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, also a Clinton supporter, praised Sanders for the race he ran and for uniting behind Clinton.
“Sen. Sanders and I have been friends for decades,” Leahy said in a statement. “He has made an invaluable contribution to the presidential race by raising important issues, especially those related to income inequality and climate change. His campaign has been a credit to our state and to the civility and public-spiritedness of political discourse in Vermont.”
Shortly after the endorsement event, Sanders blasted out an email to his supporters, announcing that “successor organizations” would be announced in the coming weeks aimed at electing progressives on the local, state and national levels.
The email, titled “Forever Forward,” also included reflections on the campaign and his decision to endorse Clinton, acknowledging, “I know that some of you will be disappointed with that decision.”
That seemed to be the case with some of those sitting in the gym bleachers Tuesday, and jeers and taunts occasionally interrupted the speeches.
Holdouts in the crowd expressed mistrust of Clinton. They said she got too much money from special interests, and some left after Sanders’ speech. One woman turned her back for the entirety of Clinton’s remarks, the words “Feel the Bern” emblazoned on her shirt.
Although a number of those in the crowd indicated they appreciated Clinton’s recent progressive policy concessions, others doubted Clinton would follow her word.
“It’s his platform. It’s really not hers,” said Diane Golding, of Saxtons River, Vermont. “And whether or not she will ever come around if she becomes president, whether or not any of those concessions will actually bear fruit, it’s another story. She’s a flip-flopper, and I don’t trust her word.”
Marianne Baldino, of Worcester, Massachusetts, called Clinton a liar who cares only about power and money.
“I am sticking with Bernie. I will never — not now, not ever — vote for Hillary,” Baldino said. “Bernie has won (my) heart. … Hillary stands for everything that I disagree with. She is corrupt — she has been forever. I didn’t vote for her in 2008, and I’m not voting for her now. Bernie has me, lock, stock and barrel. Forever.”
Martha Englert, of Barre, Vermont, said she will always be a “rabid” Sanders fan, but said she planned to vote for Clinton. Englert then gestured to her 17-year-old granddaughter, Ella McGrail, another Sanders fan who had persuaded both her grandmothers to abandon Trump and switch to Clinton.
“I try to pressure people to vote because I can’t vote yet,” said McGrail, who won’t reach the voting age of 18 before the November general election.
“I am still hard-core Bernie, always,” McGrail added. “But Hillary is far, far better than Trump, and not voting for her is as good as voting for him, in my opinion. I think not voting is unacceptable.”
While some polling shows that many Sanders supporters have shifted allegiance to Clinton, roughly 1 in 5 Sanders supporters say they are going to vote for a third-party candidate like the Green Party’s Jill Stein or Libertarian Gary Johnson, according to the website FiveThirtyEight.
A number of Sanders supporters in Portsmouth floated Stein or Johnson as a possible alternative, while others kept the door open to Clinton, saying their decision depended on future actions, including Clinton’s pick for vice president.
Sanders is not being vetted for the job, leaving U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as a favorite choice of Northern progressives.
Clinton fared somewhat poorly in the New England nominating contests, losing New Hampshire to Sanders by 20 points. Sanders won the Maine caucus and the Vermont primary. Clinton squeaked out a win in Massachusetts and easily won New York, though Sanders picked up virtually every rural county.
In the northern New York counties of Clinton and Essex, both of which border Lake Champlain, Sanders got more than 70 percent of the vote.
Outside New England, Sanders posted strong numbers in the Midwest, and Clinton will likely dispatch him to some states he won, including Wisconsin, Michigan and Washington.
Sanders is slowly shifting his attention back to his role as senator. He is angling for the chairmanship of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee if the Senate is taken over by the Democrats. His soon-to-be-launched political organization, which will aim to elect progressives, could help him advance policy down the road.
“Our job now is to see that platform implemented by a Democratic Senate, a Democratic House and a Hillary Clinton presidency, and I am going to do everything I can to make that happen,” Sanders said Tuesday.
Though his words for Clinton were nothing short of effusive Tuesday, he offered hints that he had not fully healed from the bruising primary battle. Sanders had cast Clinton as untrustworthy in the heat of the primary season, frequently calling on her to release the transcripts of paid speeches for Wall Street firms.
In Tuesday’s remarks, Sanders did not say “Goldman Sachs” and spoke very little about Wall Street.
“It is no secret that Hillary Clinton and I disagree on a number of issues,” Sanders said at the end of his remarks. “That’s what this campaign has been about. That’s what democracy is about.”
Seconds later, after Sanders finished his remarks, he turned to Clinton with his hand outstretched for a shake. In response, Clinton raised her arms in the air and embraced the democratic socialist in a hug.
Sanders smiled, looking a bit sheepish, then waved to the crowd with Clinton before stepping back, behind her. As Clinton began her speech, Sanders wiped sweat off his face, and listened.
