April Burbank

Burlington (Vt.) Free Press

CONCORD, N.H. – Two days before the New Hampshire presidential primary, Julia Barnes is running on two-and-a-half hours of sleep.

Last year, while most Vermont Democratic power players lined up behind former secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Barnes left a job at the Vermont Democratic Party to lead Sanders’ campaign in New Hampshire, where her parents live.

Barnes spoke Sunday morning at a Concord campaign office covered with handmade signs, where volunteers grabbed coffee and donuts to fuel final door knocking.

New England lawyers mobilize to ensure fair N.H. primary vote

“I actually have never bought the argument that we had any advantage because Bernie was from Vermont,” Barnes said.

“Our primary opponent has 100% name recognition in the state,” Barnes added. “She’s been campaigning here since the ’90s in one form or another. They call this ‘Clinton country’ for a reason.”

Barnes has tried to chip away at Clinton’s territory with an intense focus on door-to-door canvassing, including in more rural areas of the state.

Most polls now show Sanders stealing New Hampshire voters from Clinton, who won the state in 2008 by picking up population centers in the southeast corner.

This time, the Clinton campaign has tried to temper expectations for a win in New Hampshire without letting Granite State residents feel abandoned.

“I would never quit on New Hampshire,” Clinton said on New Hampshire Public Radio on Sunday morning. “I know I have a big uphill climb between now and Tuesday, but this primary process, this engagement that the people of this state take very seriously, does make you a better president.”

Clinton spent Saturday morning knocking on doors personally — something Sanders hasn’t done in New Hampshire in recent months, according to a spokesman.

“I hope to do as well as I possibly can,” Clinton added in the radio interview, without using the word “win.”

New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley said both campaigns have strong ground games. He has special respect for Barnes, a former employee.

“If anyone’s going to deliver a victory for Bernie Sanders,” Buckley said, “it’ll be Julia Barnes.”

Barnes points proudly to the number of doors her volunteers have knocked — 55,000 on Saturday alone — while acknowledging the stress of a campaign that she compared to “starting a small business in six months.”

Barnes grew the Sanders campaign in New Hampshire to 18 offices, with more than 100 staff members marshaling 7,200 volunteers.

Clinton’s campaign, by comparison, has 11 offices, eight get-out-the-vote centers, and more than 10,100 New Hampshire residents involved in the campaign, according to New Hampshire spokesman Harrell Kirstein.

Hillary Clinton: 'What happened in Flint was immoral'

Barnes said she couldn’t be distracted by poll results leading up to Tuesday’s voting.

“We’ve basically pretended this entire campaign like we were two, three points behind,” Barnes said. “At the end of the day, if we are lucky enough to have a very large margin, it’ll be because of that.”

If that happens, perhaps, she could sleep.

The campaign had help this weekend from a busload of New York City supporters, who walked Concord neighborhoods to check whether Sanders fans were actually planning to vote. If so, did they need a ride to the polling place?

“Beware of dog,” warned signs at one house. “No soliciting.”

“Should we attempt it?” asked Leslie Roeder of Manhattan, who was relieved to see a Sanders sign and bumper sticker on the porch.

A white dog barked from the backyard. Roeder’s group decided to leave some campaign literature instead of knocking.

At another house, volunteers were about to leave when the resident rolled into the driveway.

“I’m voting for Bernie, don’t worry,” Gerhardt Schroeder said. He told the canvassers he knew of a few Clinton supporters in the area, “especially the older crowd.”

Outside towns like Concord, Barnes said New Hampshire’s rural landscape makes door-knocking difficult and time-consuming.

Black N.H. voters unconvinced by Bernie Sanders

“Our canvassing is going into parts of the state where people aren’t used to having folks come and knock on their door to talk to them about politics,” Barnes said.

At the parking lot of a seafood restaurant in the small town of Chichester, about a 12-minute drive from Sanders’ campaign office, a few patrons said neither the Clinton nor the Sanders campaign had knocked on their doors.

Muriel and Joe Trovato, who live in Epsom, said they’d seen both campaigns come to their home. They planned to vote for Clinton.

“We get two for one, and she’s experienced,” Trovato said.

Muriel Trovato predicted that Sanders would win the Democratic primary in New Hampshire, especially with a winter storm on the way.

Older voters might stay home, Trovato reasoned, while Sanders’ young supporters wouldn’t mind driving through the snow.

Sanders is likely to do well in the western part of New Hampshire, near the Vermont border, where President Obama and former Vermont governor Howard Dean saw success in the past.

Some Vermonters have crossed the border to help Sanders, and the Clinton campaign has argued that Sanders’ proximity gives him as much as a 15-point boost.

Barnes dismissed the argument as “ridiculous.”

“There is an inherent understanding of Hillary Clinton and the Clinton campaign in New Hampshire,” Barnes said. “She has locked up the whole political establishment in this state.”

At least two other factors could tip the balance in Sanders’ favor this time, observers say.

Previous New Hampshire primaries were held in early January, when many college students were away, said Buckley, the Democratic chairman. Later voting means that more college students — who tend to favor Sanders — are likely to participate.

Dante Scala, an expert on the New Hampshire presidential primary who teaches political science at the University of New Hampshire, said Sanders may be winning over some of Clinton’s blue-collar and moderate Democratic supporters.

“Right now, I think age of the voter seems to be a greater dividing line than socioeconomic status, and that’s new,” Scala said. “I do think Sanders is doing better among those voters than previous candidates of his type.”

Barnes is hoping her efforts will be rewarded with high turnout on Tuesday. The fatigue hasn’t eclipsed her enthusiasm.

“Coming back to New Hampshire for Bernie,” she said, “is probably the best decision I could have ever made.”

Follow April Burbank on Twitter: @AprilBurbank