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In N.H., Bernie Sanders asserts he’s a credible candidate

Cites his early fund-raising as sign of support

Senator Bernie Sanders got a warm welcome at a house party in Manchester, N.H.CHERYL SENTER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

NORTH CONWAY, N.H. — As he hit the campaign trail for the first time as a presidential candidate, Vermont US Senator Bernie Sanders traveled New Hampshire Saturday hoping to convince like-minded liberals that he won’t be just the protest candidate against former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, but her credible alternative.

From a packed house party in Manchester to an outdoor labor union event with the White Mountains Presidential Range behind him, Sanders began a new stump speech with crib notes written on a folded sheet of yellow legal paper. It began with statistics on income equality and then went on through the progressive playbook on climate change, health care, college costs, and campaign finance reform.

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At the end of his pitch to voters in the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state, he acknowledged he is an underdog, yet not a lost cause.

“This campaign we are going to wage in New Hampshire and all over the country is going to be a very different campaign,” Sanders said. “I know people say, ‘Oh Bernie this and Oh Bernie that, but he cannot win.’ Let me tell you: We can win.”

To make his point, he noted that a day after he announced his campaign he raised $1.5 million from 35,000 donors, which is more than Republican presidential candidates Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio raised a day after they began their own bids this spring. (Clinton has not released campaign fund-raising numbers.)

Sanders got mixed reactions, though he has visited New Hampshire more than any other presidential candidate in the last year.

“I am excited that he is running, but I don’t think he has a snowball’s chance in hell of actually winning,” said Mark Hounsell, a former New Hampshire state senator from Conway. “He does add a dimension to the race and could actually help Clinton appear less left-wing in the general election.”

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But Mary Ellen Johansson of Manchester walked away from the house party very open to voting for Sanders, even though she backed Clinton in the state’s 2008 presidential primary.

She liked Clinton last time because of her celebrity and because she is a woman, but she is drawn to Sanders on the issues. “I feel like Sanders is really saying the things that need to be said that are relevant to a single mom like me,” she said.

Sanders never mentioned Clinton in his remarks. A Sanders adviser said this was intentional. “He is not going to build this campaign based on the competition,” Mark Longabaugh, a Sanders consultant, said. “But you are going to hear a lot about his real opponents: the Koch brothers, Citizens United, and the polluters responsible for climate change.”

Separate polls of Democrats in New Hampshire and Iowa conducted last month showed Sanders performing better than all other potential primary challengers against Clinton except US Senator Elizabeth Warren, who says she is not running. In Iowa, Sanders trailed Clinton 62 to 14 percent in a Public Policy Poll. In New Hampshire, the same poll found him behind Clinton 45 to 12 percent.

But first, Sanders, the nation’s longest-serving independent in Congress, must qualify for the New Hampshire Democratic primary ballot. On Thursday, New Hampshire’s secretary of state said Sanders must prove he’s running as a Democrat. Vermont, like many other states, doesn’t have a way for voters to change their party registration.

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“We are going to fulfill all the rules,” Sanders said of his intention to run as a Democrat.

Sanders is pushing a populist rhetoric aimed at the anxiety of the country’s middle class on the cost of college, stagnant wages, and trade policy, all of which he says redistribute wealth to those already rich.

“It is not just that the middle class is disappearing,” Sanders said. “The people on top are doing phenomenally well. Not well, not very good, but phenomenally well, and the disparity in wealth and income is literally beyond belief.”

He is calling for free tuition for public colleges and universities, gradually increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, and increasing Social Security benefits.

“It feels so good to be with unapologetic left-wingers,” said Wayne Alteresio, president of the New Hampshire Association of Letter Carriers. “If he keeps it up, there will be a lot of support, not just clapping.”

Related:

Sanders’ views will not sell nationally, some say

Burlington mayor not backing Bernie Sanders

A less-crusty Sanders tests presidential waters


James Pindell can be reached at James.Pindell@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @JamesPindell.