MANCHESTER, N.H. — On the eve of the New Hampshire primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders and President Donald Trump held dueling campaign rallies in their final efforts to drum up support for the first official vote of the 2020 cycle.
While Trump filled the approximately 11,000-seat Southern New Hampshire University arena in downtown Manchester, 30 miles away in Durham, Sanders packed a crowd of more than 7,500 into the University of New Hampshire’s Whittemore Center Arena, Monday night.
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., introduced Sanders Monday night, touting the Vermont senator’s long record of supporting progressive issues and standing up for minorities throughout the country.
“There are two paths we can take,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“One is a nomination that brings us back to business as usual. Or we can choose to move forward. Forward to a multiracial democracy, forward to guaranteed health care, forward to a living wage … Forward, forward, forward — that’s where we’re going to go!” she said, as thousands of supporters stood up waving blue and white signs.
She said that the Vermont senator would be able to best Trump, which is why the president traveled to the Granite State on Monday.
“In every poll Bernie beats Trump,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Trump knows that. Why else do you think he has come here tonight?”
Trump, who would finish his speech in Manchester before Sanders began his in Durham, mostly used his remarks to tout how well the economy has fared under his leadership. But he also stressed that he would defeat whomever the Democratic nominee for president is, adding that all the candidates are taking “their cues from Crazy Bernie.”
“Bernie’s health care take-over,” Trump said, referencing Sanders’ Medicare for All proposal. “The Democratic Party wants to run your health care, but they can’t even run a caucus in Iowa.”
Trump added he believes Democrats are rigging the nomination process against Sanders and that the delayed results from Iowa are proof the Democratic establishment has it out for the Vermont independent.
“Actually I think they are trying to take it away from Bernie again. I think Bernie came in second, can you believe it,” the president said.
“They’re doing it to you again, Bernie, they are doing it to you again,” he added.
Trump also seemed to crib a line from Sanders. During his remarks, the president said his campaign and the the importance of winning reelection is about his supporters and not just him.
“It’s not I. It’s we,” Trump said, echoing Sanders’ campaign slogan: “Not me. Us.”
Before Trump gave his speech, Vice President Mike Pence, Donald Trump Jr. and Trump campaign staffer Kimberly Guilfoyle all mentioned Sanders as they called the Democrats a party of socialists.
Since early January, the Trump campaign has been strategically calling Sanders a socialist in social media posts and online advertising as it has begun to target the Vermont senator as the possible nominee.
“There are a bunch of self-proclaimed socialists running to replace Donald Trump,” Guilfoyle said to loud boos from the crowd.
“Under President Trump, America will never be a socialist country,” she added.
Donald Trump Jr. joked that seeing so many people in the arena made him confident his father would win reelection.
“Who’s voting for Bernie?” Trump Jr. said.
“Nobody,” yelled a supporter in the stands.
Thirty miles away, Sanders spent time during his speech criticizing the president for his hardline immigration policies, which have resulted in the detention of thousands of minors, and his failure to improve the plight of factory workers, despite his promises to do in 2016.
As Sanders wrapped up his speech, he said that not only the U.S. but “the entire world” will be watching the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday.
“What I’m asking you to do is begin a political revolution which does two things. Number one, it defeats the most dangerous president in modern American history but it does something more than that,” he said.
“What it does is begin the movement to create an economy and a government that works for all of us — not just the one percent.”
As Sanders walked offstage, The Strokes, a rock band that became popular in the early 2000s, began to play their set, as hundreds pushed forward to listen and dance.
After quickly setting up, the band launched into a cover of the Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House.”
Sanders’ final push
Earlier Monday, Sanders made his final pitch to New Hamphsire voters, criss-crossing the state and holding smaller rallies.
The Vermont senator currently leads in the polls, up by 7 and 8 points, respectively, on his next closest competitor, Pete Buttigieg, according to Feb. 9 surveys from both Emerson College and the Boston Globe.
Both polls have Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., in third ahead of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and former Vice President Joe Biden.
Heather Caldwell, 43, of Portsmouth, who attended Sanders’ Durham rally with her 11-year-old and 14-year-old daughters, said she believes that of all the Democratic candidates in 2020, Sanders is the only one who can unseat Trump in November.
“I think he’s the only one who’s smart enough and ferocious enough to go up against Trump,” she said.
But she predicts that ultimately, no Democrat will be able to attract enough support to beat the sitting president.
“I think his base is on fire right now,” she said of Trump.
Greta Yeadon, of Worcester, Massachusetts, has been knocking on doors in New Hampshire for Sanders over the past few days, and was among the hundreds standing in line to get inside the rally Monday evening.
She criticized Buttigieg, the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor, who has recently emerged as Sanders’ most formidable rival in the Granite State.
“He’s just saying what he wants to say to get elected so he can then do the bidding of his corporate masters,” Yeadon said, echoing a recent talking point from Sanders and his campaign surrogates.
“He belongs to all of us,” she said of Sanders, while pointing to the crowd of hundreds snaking around the entrance to the Monday night rally. “Buttigieg belongs to the corporations.”
Dean Kent, who traveled to Durham from Worthington, Massachusetts, said that if Sanders wins the primary he will be smeared by Republicans. But he said that he doesn’t believe the senator is as left-leaning as critics might suggest.
“In my mind he’s not that far to the left. In my mind he’s a New Deal Democrat,” Kent said.
In Manchester, before Trump entered the arena, some of the president’s supporters said Sanders wouldn’t have a chance in the general election.
A retired state police officer from Massachusetts, who would not give his name out of fear of receiving death threats from the “radical left,” said that while he sees Sanders as a danger to the country, he respects him.
“I give Bernie this, Bernie is a fighter. He has guts, he’s authentic. I think when Bernie says something you know he believes it,” he said.
“I hope he never wins,” the man added. “ I hope he gets the nomination because Trump will destroy him.”
Barry Allendorph, who traveled up from Salem, Massachusetts, for the event said the president’s ability to draw large crowds and excite people will make him hard to beat in 2020.
“Dems really don’t have a chance,” Allendorph said. “He’s really touched the American people, you know, the blue collar people, the veterans, the working class. I’m excited.”
Correction: a previous version of this article misidentified the location of Sanders’ primary results watch party.
