Bernie Sanders holds a campaign rally at Eastern Michigan University on Feb. 15, 2016. | Getty Bernie’s spring break blues When Bernie Sanders will need college students the most, they'll be watching Netflix and partying.

Last August, Bernie Sanders packed 12,000 people into a pavilion at the University of Washington, while 3,000 more couldn’t fit and were stuck outside. Later in the fall, he won Western Illinois University’s mock presidential election by a landslide. Last week, his campaign opened a local office just off the Michigan State University campus, calling it a “beacon of hope” for its supporters.

But there’s just one problem for the surging senator: When primary or caucus day arrives in each of these college towns, as well as dozens more from Maine to Hawaii, many of the students Sanders hopes will help carry him to the White House won’t be there. They’ll be in Cancún. Or Florida. Or back home.


Call it Bernie’s Spring Break Blues.

This year’s spring break schedule clashes directly with a large swath of primaries and caucuses, a conflict that comes at the worst possible time for Sanders, who crushed his rival Hillary Clinton among young and first-time voters in the exit polls in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. The Democratic race is about to enter a four-week stretch where more than half of the party’s delegates will be awarded. But as the voting gets under way, one campus after another is closing down for weeklong breaks. In all, more than half a million college students from 14 states will be on spring break at the same time that the presidential campaign train chugs onto their campuses, according to a Politico analysis of the March 5 to March 26 primary and caucus states.

For Sanders to keep his momentum into April, he’s going to need to turn the #FeeltheBern college crowd’s enthusiasm into real live votes. But that’s a lot harder to do when those students have fanned out far away from their classrooms and are binge-watching Netflix on their parents’ couches or partying in New Orleans rather than caucusing in Bangor.

“We’ve seen a lot of enthusiasm for his candidacy,” said Mitch Stewart, a veteran field organizer and strategist from Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. “This is an instance where enthusiasm alone might not be enough.”

The list of spring-break primary clashes is long, covering some of the upcoming battlegrounds’ largest schools, including the Ohio State University, Michigan State and the University of South Florida. It’s also a problem for Sanders in smaller states with large student populations; the University of Maine, the University of Hawaii and Boise State University are all on break when voting rolls around.

Sanders’ campaign and its student supporters know about the problem and say they’re trying to work around the scheduling conflict by getting word out about it through Facebook posts, posters in dorm hallways and by promoting alternative options when available, such as absentee balloting and early voting. They expect that the senator’s most enthusiastic backers will stick around school to participate. But that’s easier said than done for many others. “We’re optimistic but realistic,” said Elia Pales, a 19-year-old Michigan State freshman and Sanders organizer bracing for many of East Lansing’s 50,000 students to clear out before the March 8 primaries.

There’s not always an easy solution.

In Idaho, the March 22 Democratic caucuses coincide with vacations for students at Boise State, Idaho State and the colleges of Idaho, Southern Idaho and Western Idaho. And absentee voting there isn’t even an option. The same goes in Hawaii, where the March 26 Democratic caucuses will come while 18,000-plus undergraduates will be long gone from the University of Hawaii campus at Manoa, as well as at its sister branch in Hilo and at Chaminade University of Honolulu.

In Washington state, Sanders supporters are telling college students at the University of Washington, Western Washington University and the Evergreen State College that they actually can participate in the state’s March 26 Democratic caucuses via absentee ballot. It might not be easy: There are new party rules requiring a signature affirming that the voter is missing for a legitimate reason — a short list including religion, military service, work schedule, disability or illness. “We’re going to be pushing that pretty hard,” said Mia Harvey, a junior at Evergreen State College and Sanders backer. (Spring break is not on the list, but they’re hoping students apply anyway.)

“It’s on the honor system,” added David Spring, a volunteer Sanders organizer from North Bend, Washington. “There will be no screening of these forms.”

Deadlines, no friend of the college crowd, are also quickly approaching in some of the other upcoming states. In Nebraska, Democratic spring breakers from Creighton University, Wayne State College, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Doane College must request absentee ballots by Feb. 24. An online form must be returned by March 2 in Maine if spring-breaking students want to participate in their Democratic caucuses. Among the affected schools: the University of Maine in Orono and Husson University in Bangor.

In Michigan, there are some straight-up logistical challenges for absentee voting — an issue for students at Michigan State, Central Michigan University, Western Michigan University, Ferris State University and Olivet College who won’t be in class for the March 8 primary — including a state requirement that first-time voters need to physically go to their city clerk’s office with an ID to request a ballot.

“We’re hoping the work we’ve done will help minimize the loss of turnout,” said Pales, the Sanders organizer at Michigan State, who has been pleading with his classmates to make the short walk just off campus to vote by absentee ballot. “But there’s only so much more we can do.”

For Ohio State students, the closest early voting center is a 15-minute drive from campus, and a 40-minute one-way ride on the public bus. While it’s open on weekdays during business hours, graduate student and Sanders volunteer Sarah Lukowski noted “that’s when most students have class.” She’s trying to organize car pools and bus rides for Sanders backers on March 5, the lone Saturday when the center is open before her classmates clear out for spring break.

“I don’t know how we’re going to get thousands of people out there,” she said. “We’re going to try our best, but it’s a real challenge.”

Several other major schools will be dark during a cluster of March 15 primaries: USF in Tampa and the University of West Florida in Pensacola; the four corners of the Illinois state university system: Southern, Northern, Eastern and Western; Washington University in St. Louis and Southeast Missouri State; Duke University and the University of North Carolina.

On their Facebook page, the UNC Young Democrats have been spreading the word that “nearly all students will be gone!” during the state primary and are urging students to participate in early voting at a nearby church just off campus on March 5.

Sanders is alone in the 2016 field when it comes to pouring so many resources into winning the college vote, though senior campaign adviser Tad Devine downplayed the significance of the spring break absences. “I’m not concerned any more about that than I am about 50 other factors that will influence the outcome of the elections in these other states,” he said.

While Devine welcomed college student supporters, he cited the senator’s early-state support among Latinos and lower-income families to note that Sanders is “trying to build a very broad-based coalition. It’s not limited to one set of voters.”

The Republican candidates don’t have the same problem; Rand Paul was the only one pushing hard on campus. Now it’s Marco Rubio and Donald Trump vying most for the conservative student vote. The first early test for both will come March 5, when Republicans caucus in Maine and Kentucky, which will be without its students from Western Kentucky University.

Vincent Harris, who worked as Paul’s digital director, said if anyone on the Republican side is going to be hurt by the upcoming spring break conflicts, it would likely be Rubio. But he doesn’t see many GOP resources going toward the college crowd overall, so their spring breaks will be a little less risky than Bernie’s.

“These are grandmas and grandpas that are voting in Republican primaries,” Harris said. “The last time they were in a fraternity house was during the Nixon administration.”

