HANOVER, N.H. — Dartmouth College consistently ranks the most conservative of the Ivy League schools, but tonight, in a crowded on-campus auditorium, the politics of the student body was anybody’s guess.
“It turns out the inevitable might not be so inevitable,” Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders told hundreds of Ivy Leaguers Thursday, just miles away from his home state.
The remark, which drew heavy applause, was a clear reference to the state of the Democratic presidential race in the earliest voting states and nationwide.
Sanders, a proud democratic socialist, is polling 14 percentage points above former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Granite State, four points behind her in Iowa and less than 10 points behind her nationally. His insurgent campaign has, in essence, put the long-presumed Democratic nominee on her toes.
“On Feb. 9 the eyes of the entire country will be on this small state and the very simple question is: Will the people of New Hampshire stand up and demand that this country move in a very different direction?”, Sanders asked the seemingly mesmerized crowd.
For nearly an hour and a half, the candidate railed against Wall Street, his Republican opponents and the dominant force of money in politics, pausing periodically to accommodate the audience’s overwhelming applause.
“Instead of sitting down in mansions with billionaires, we reached out to the American people, and something happened that, honestly in a milion years, I never would have predicted when I started this campaign,” Sanders told audience. “And that is that in the last 8.5 months we have receive 2.5 million individuals contributions from over 1 million people.”
“Other candidates go out and do these big fancy fundraisers,” he continued. “What I am very proud of is [that] our average contribution is $27.”
Sanders arrived at Dartmouth Thursday with a new endorsement in hand from former Democratic National Committee chairman and Massachusetts Sen. Paul Kirk, who introduced the 74-year-old senator to the crowd minutes after he announced his support.
“The bold and honest patriotic summons of Bernie Sanders speaks directly to me,” Kirk said. “That is why I am here tonight and encourage you all to join with Bernie Sanders in the days and weeks ahead.”
