Clinton pitches to young voters before primary day

A group calling themselves the Arkansas Travelers attended presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s rally Monday morning. Photo by David Lim

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Facing a double-digit gap, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a stop at Manchester Community College Monday afternoon to make a last day pitch to undecided voters, but many were moved to an overflow room because so many political tourists were in the main auditorium.

The Arkansas Travelers, a group of political tourists, sent 90 people to the rally, taking space away from undecided voters who were listening from outside the room in the overflow area. The group described themselves as longtime former President Bill Clinton supporters, who paid their way to attend the rally in New Hampshire.

After being introduced by New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, Clinton’s husband and daughter Chelsea Clinton, Clinton made a passionate stump speech urging voters to come out and vote. Touching on a wide swath of policy proposals, Clinton pushed to present herself as somebody who know how the system worked and could continue the change President Barrack Obama created.

Clinton argued that many services and books should be provided free to students, but tuition should still be subject to a family’s ability to pay for college. Clinton also proposed that all college students should work 10 hours a week. She struggled to attract younger voters who supported her opponent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by more than 85 percent in the CNN exit poll in Iowa.

“Bernie is speaking to the issues that I care about with much more resonance,” recent college graduate Matthew Miles Goodrich said. “There are people like me that are dogging her and saying that she has to be responsive if she wants our vote.”

Touching on climate change and financial regulation, Clinton argued that contributions from the banking industry to Obama didn’t stop him from passing Dodd-Frank.

“Senator Sanders and I share many of the same goals,” Clinton said. “It won’t happen by wishing for it. It will happen by working for it.”