DURHAM, N.H. — Democrat Bernie Sanders — riding high on rising poll numbers — brought his thundering left-leaning populism to cheering throngs that packed town halls yesterday in a barnstorming tour designed to capitalize on his newfound star quality.

“The Republicans get away with murder. Nobody knows what they stand for,” the Vermont senator, a 73-year-old grandfather, told the capacity crowd at Oyster River High School yesterday.

Related:

“We are going to sweep this election. I’m asking you to join me in creating a political revolution in this country,” Sanders said, to shouts of “Go get ’em, Bernie!”

“We’re going to win this campaign,” Sanders vowed, “because from coast to coast, people understand that when we stand together as Americans, there is nothing, nothing, nothing that we can’t accomplish.”

Earlier yesterday, the Democratic Party’s unlikely white-haired rock star filled a hall at the historic Governor’s Inn in Rochester with whistling, cheering believers despite torrential wind-whipped downpours.

A CNN/WMUR poll Friday showed Sanders nipping at the heels of once-dominant Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton with a margin of just eight points between them — while their nearest competitors languish in the low single digits.

When asked by the Herald yesterday why he wasn’t talking up the polls, Sanders said, “Let the reality speak for itself. We had six or seven events here in New Hampshire this weekend. You saw the turnout. We had 500 people in Nashua yesterday. I think we’re doing pretty well.”

Sanders spokesman ?Michael Briggs said the campaign moves to Iowa later this week and is working to schedule a Boston appearance sometime “soon.”

If elected president, the son of a Polish immigrant and a former Vermont congressman and onetime mayor of Burlington, Vt., has said he intends to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, make public universities tuition-free, mandate four weeks’ paid leave for working parents following the birth of a child, get U.S. troops out of war in the Middle East and make appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court dependent on a nominee’s willingness to end unlimited campaign ad spending.

Rochester retiree Thomas Kelly, who formerly taught microbiology to nursing students, called Sanders “Our new penicillin,” before the crowd at The Governor’s Inn.

Judy Wuerker of Nottingham, formerly of Melrose, Mass., said her dream ticket would feature Sanders with running mate U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Clinton, Wuerker said, “hasn’t picked any steam up. She doesn’t answer questions. She’s not forthcoming. She waffles. And if she’s waffling now, she’ll be waffling on a lot of things later.”