HANOVER, N.H. — Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders delivered messages of hope to a cheering crowd at Dartmouth College last night, pledging to make college tuition-free, abolish student debt and decriminalize marijuana.

“What this campaign is about is thinking big, not small,” Sanders said. “When we stand together, there is nothing that we cannot accomplish.”

He added that his campaign is about “talking about the real issues ?facing the American ?people.”

Sanders echoed his campaign promises to use a tax on Wall Street to provide free college, and said he would raise the Granite State’s $7.25 minimum wage — what he called a “starvation wage” — to $15.

“Wages in America are just too damn low,” he said to hollers and whistles of support.

He also said he would address the average of 79 cents that each woman earns for every dollar each man earns.

“That is just old-fashioned sexism,” he said. “Together we’re going to end that.”

Sanders, who is gaining on Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in recent polls, also received an endorsement from former Bay State U.S. Sen. Paul G. Kirk Jr., a past chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

“I had the privilege of serving briefly with Bernie Sanders in the United States Senate and I quickly learned that he is who he is,” Kirk said. “A plain-spoken and authentic patriot who wears his passion for a better America on his sleeve.”

Sanders, who has been leading in New Hampshire polls, is now nipping at Clinton’s heels in Iowa. Clinton leads Sanders by only 2 percentage points in the latest Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll, down from 9 percentage points last month.

“What has happened over the last nine months is literally something I never, ever, ever would have dreamed of,” Sanders said.

Hundreds of students gathered in the school auditorium — some to show their support, and some to get a better feel for the candidate before the primary rolls around.

Many said the success of the Sanders campaign comes as a surprise.

“I think that he’s definitely got a significant chance to be the candidate and be elected ?president,” said John Patrick Lewis, a 22-year-old student.

“Astronomically better chance than people originally thought.”