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NASHUA, N.H. – Most presidential candidates don’t talk openly about electoral strategy, preferring to keep the focus on voters’ needs and not their own. But Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, in remarks here Friday at one of his campaign offices, made a blunt appeal to New Hampshire voters as he described the state’s February primary as critical to his survival as a candidate.

Saying that he had an “excellent chance” of beating Hillary Rodham Clinton in New Hampshire, and that he could also win the Iowa caucuses a week before, Mr. Sanders said, “If we win Iowa and New Hampshire, it opens up for us a path toward victory.”

Mr. Sanders rarely talks about the caucuses and primaries as must-win affairs, but he was seeking to send a sharp message to voters – through the bank of television cameras and a dozen reporters – that his campaign will rise or fall in the nominating race’s first two voting states. Mrs. Clinton’s aides, by contrast, are building a political firewall through Southern states to keep her on track to capture the Democratic nomination even if she loses in Iowa and New Hampshire.

After an earlier event where he promised to do more than Mrs. Clinton to protect and expand Social Security benefits, Mr. Sanders dwelled largely on campaign dynamics here as he said he faced “a tough road – we are taking on establishment politics, we are taking on establishment economics, we will be outspent.”

Mr. Sanders dropped Mrs. Clinton’s name as he pointedly noted that unlike him, she has support from a “super PAC” – the sort of big-money political outfit that he sees as a corrupting influence in government.

“When you have a super PAC, you can sit down in a room with a handful of very wealthy families and then walk out with millions of dollars,” said Mr. Sanders, who is well aware that many New Hampshire voters strongly support campaign finance reform. “I’m proud of the way we’ve raised our money.”

Mr. Sanders, who holds a modest lead in New Hampshire polls, is campaigning in the state through Saturday evening, while Mrs. Clinton held events here on Wednesday and Thursday – a pace that is sure to continue for the next three months.