PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — For weeks now, Hillary Clinton’s campaign has been engaged in a project to win over the staunchest — and loudest — of Bernie Sanders’ supporters in the places where they’ll matter most in November.

Using one-on-one meetings, social gatherings and public campaign events, Clinton’s operatives have been quietly working to court his backers in battleground states Sanders won during the primary or where they fought in especially contentious contests — in some cases relying on personal appeals from staffers as senior as campaign manager Robby Mook.


The first return on that investment comes Tuesday when Sanders joins Clinton on stage here for the formal display of unity the party’s been waiting for in advance of the July convention. In announcing the event Monday, both campaigns synchronized their press releases and shared similar language that the two former rivals will “discuss their commitment to building an America that is stronger together and an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top.”

Even with the specter of Donald Trump looming, however, in states like this one — where Sanders beat Clinton by 22 points five months ago — the unification effort hasn’t been easy. It’s been an even tougher challenge in states where the primary was particularly tense — places like Iowa, Michigan, Nevada and Colorado, where in some cases suspicion still lingers.

But defusing those tensions has been a focus of top party brass ever since the Nevada Democratic Party convention exploded into chaos in May, and the Clinton team’s efforts — often run out of the local offices, but occasionally escalating to the Brooklyn headquarters — have ramped up since the last primary vote was held in June.

“It’s clear they’ve had a really concentrated effort to begin that outreach,” acknowledged Julia Barnes, who served as Sanders’ state director in New Hampshire and as a top national field staffer. “They’ve been really straightforward about being interested in listening, and taking in the disappointment that some of our folks might feel."

That outreach appears to have produced material results after a primary that got increasingly chippy in its closing weeks: Sanders supporters have flocked to Clinton faster in 2016 than Clinton supporters went to then-Sen. Barack Obama’s side in 2008, according to a recent Pew survey. Fully 85 percent of Sanders’ primary supporters said they would vote for Clinton, compared with just 69 percent of hers backing Obama after she dropped out eight years ago.

In the absence of an early formal endorsement from the senator who has pledged to do whatever he can to defeat Trump, the Clinton operation prioritized winning over the loudest liberals, some of whom are proponents of the #BernieorBust movement.

One way was through the Democratic Party platform-drafting process. Negotiations over the platform had been ongoing between campaign policy advisers for nearly a month when the delegates met in Orlando on Friday and Saturday, culminating in a draft version that saw Sanders drag Clinton clearly to the left on issues such as education, health care and the federal minimum wage.

A collection of Clinton’s top aides also have gone out of their way to personally speak with Sanders’ convention delegates — Mook sat down with the Vermont contingent during a late June trip to Burlington to meet with members of Sanders’ brain trust and negotiate his campaign wind-down. Both Mook and Marlon Marshall, the campaign’s director of states and political engagement, have been holding meetings during their travels that include groups of Sanders supporters and delegates, said people familiar with the meetings.

Elsewhere, some of the Clinton campaign’s more prominent local advocates have been dispatched to help out on the ground. In New Hampshire, for example, former state House Speaker Terie Norelli estimated she has held roughly two dozen one-on-one meetings with Sanders delegates and steering committee members.

Two weeks ago, over sandwiches at her home in Portsmouth, Norelli was joined by Mook and New Hampshire state director Mike Vlacich in a discussion with Sanders delegates over policy proposals and the path forward, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

“All of my conversations have been very good dialogues. I’ve been very pleased,” said Norelli. "Does that mean that everyone I talked to at any given time was gung-ho to support Hillary? No. But they’ve been positive conversations."

Supporters react as Bernie Sanders takes the stage in New York on June 23. The Clinton campaign is trying to win over Sanders die-hards. | AP Photo

There are clearly some Sanders holdouts in strategically important states like New Hampshire, however, and they remain suspicious of Clinton’s plans.

“There’s an obviously coordinated effort to bully Sanders people. There’s been a little bit of pressure to go with the tradition of all delegates voting unanimously for the nominee. It hasn’t been respectful given the fact that Sanders absolutely cleaned their clock better than anyone could have imagined here in New Hampshire,” said Burt Cohen, a local radio host and former state senator who helped arrange Sanders’ first trip to the state last year, and remained a prominent supporter. “They continue to act like they’re entitled, like they don’t have to do anything, like we should just, of course, flock to her. And I think that’s a very stupid — quite frankly — attitude and approach. It surprises me."

While New Hampshire presents a particular challenge for Clinton because of Sanders’ wide margin of victory there, it’s not the only complicated state. In Nevada, a vocal band of Sanders backers has been agitating for him to run as an independent there following their raucous party convention. In Colorado, some Sanders fans harbor suspicions about the state party after it failed to properly disclose that it had miscounted delegates.

Recognizing such wariness, Clinton forces are turning to highly publicized events, like phone banks and canvasses, as a potent method to win over holdouts in targeted states. In Michigan — a state where Sanders won a stunning victory over Clinton — her camp held a “unity event” on Monday that brought together Sanders and Clinton delegates. In Iowa, backers of both candidates gathered to see former candidate Martin O’Malley campaign for Clinton in late June.

Now, as more of the Sanders infrastructure clicks into Clinton’s corner — she recently hired his top campus organizer and installed a Sanders staffer as Rhode Island state director, for example — the task has turned to wooing the Sanders’ rank and file.

“They’ve talked to the delegates and the top brass of the surrogates and supporters,” Barnes said. “There’s another layer that’s going to have to happen over the next couple of months, with the volunteers and grass roots."