DURHAM, N.H. – It was the threat of a common enemy -- not any particularly deep love for one another -- that united Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders last July at their first joint rally in Portsmouth after a long and bitter primary race.

But during their second joint event of the general election, staged at the University of New Hampshire here on a brusque fall day that brought back visceral memories of last year’s hard-fought race, Clinton turned to the Vermont Senator instead to help deliver the lesser known, positive case for her candidacy.


This time, the former rivals -- more comfortable with each other than during their first go-round -- barely mentioned Donald Trump. In front of a crowd of about 1,200 that lined up hours in advance, Clinton and Sanders sat as partners in a dry panel discussion to discuss debt-free college, part of Clinton’s new aim to combat her high negative numbers by giving "Americans something to vote for, not just against.”

“We have to focus on what we want to do,” Clinton said, revisiting the kind of policy rollout discussions that drove her primary fight before she entered the Trump-bashing phase of her campaign. “We're going to put a moratorium so you don't have to pay your student debt back for a couple of years while you try and get your business started. We're also going to provide loan forgiveness for people who want to go into public service or national service.”

But it was Sanders, who inspired millions of millennial and independent voters during the primary to get involved in politics and join a movement, who was there to help drive the positive message home for Clinton. “Is anyone here ready to transform America?” he asked the crowd, hinting there was nothing un-revolutionary about Clinton’s more incremental plans for change. “You've come to the right place.”

Sanders is the only one of Clinton’s most high-profile surrogates -- like Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, and the Obamas -- with whom Clinton has now campaigned at multiple events since clinching the nomination.

And while Warren has made a name for herself as a funny and bracing Trump attack dog, progressives said Sanders' highest and best use is to help Clinton pitch her positive case, especially in a crucial battleground state like New Hampshire.

“Bernie Sanders can make the positive, progressive argument for Clinton better and more authentically than just about anyone else on the trail,” said Neil Sroka, communications director for Democracy for America. “The biggest risk for Democrats are the progressives and Democratic-leaning voters who, because Donald Trump says something insanely bigoted every 12 minutes, haven't heard enough about the bold, progressive platform and agenda Democrats are running on this year.”

After a contested primary bout against her, Sen. Bernie Sanders has embraced Hillary Clinton's candidacy. | Getty

Indeed, Sanders’ former top operatives have been pushing the Clinton campaign to move away from simply disqualifying the Republican nominee. “She has to get away from this ‘Trump’s bad’ and talk more about what she wants to do,” Sanders’ former campaign manager Jeff Weaver told POLITICO in an interview ahead of Monday night’s debate. “I think right now it’s a coin toss. To the extent they continue on this Trump’s terrible, she’s terrible’ conversation, that’s his race. If she runs that kind of race, she’s going to lose it.”

Clinton's campaign was so set Wednesday on keeping the message on an issue -- rather than on Trump -- that the Democratic nominee did not gaggle or take questions from reporters all day.

Sanders performs best with millennial voters, rural constituencies, and independent voters, whom he won in the primary by a 3 to 1 margin. And insiders close to Sanders said he can help move those voters to Clinton’s column -- their research shows that millennial voters currently supporting third party candidates like former New Mexico Gary Johnson and Green party candidate Jill Stein are less attached to those candidates than the “second-choice Trump voters” backing Johnson.

The Sanders camp and the Clinton camp bonded during the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia last July, where they shared access to the boiler room at the Wells Fargo Center that served as the nerve center of the four-day show. And Weaver and Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook remain in regular communication about how Sanders can help elect Clinton. Sanders, a close associate said, is expected to hit the road hard for the Democratic nominee beginning Oct. 3, stumping for the former secretary of state for five or six consecutive days at a time.

The self-described Democratic Socialist is best known in New Hampshire, his neighboring state where he deeply shook Clinton’s confidence with his 22-point primary win here last February. She has yet to return to the battleground state during the general election without Sanders standing by her side.

On Wednesday, any chill between the two former rivals seemed to have thawed. Sanders opened his arms to embrace Clinton in a big hug (two months ago, he extended his hand for a stiff shake instead). They spent time together privately before their joint panel discussion on debt-free college, and then seemed to finish each other’s stories about the crippling financial burdens of student debt. Clinton nodded vigorously when Sanders recounted a story of meeting a supporter who was not only helping to pay off a child’s student debt, but still making payments on her own.

And while Sanders lost the primary, the joint event was about touting one of the areas where he emerged as the party's victor. In an effort to unite the party, Clinton ultimately embraced the majority of Sanders’ free college plan that she had mocked in the heat of battle, announcing that she would eliminate tuition at in-state public colleges and universities for anyone making less than $125,000.

“I want young people to leave school excited about the future, not being saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in student debt,” Sanders told the crowd in Durham. “When you have Republicans telling us it's OK to pay tens of billions in tax breaks to the richest people in this country, do not tell me that we cannot afford to make public college available.”