MANCHESTER, N.H. — Bernie Sanders ran away with the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary in 2016. This time around — with a much larger field and a new threat from neighboring U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren — Sanders won’t presume history repeats.

“We take nothing for granted,” the Vermont senator told the Herald Saturday at the New Hampshire State Democratic Convention. “We have put together, I think, the strongest volunteer base of any campaign out there. Literally, as we speak right this moment there are hundreds of people on our campaign who are knocking on doors here in Manchester, and we’re going to win it I believe the old-fashioned way.”

Sanders crushed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Granite State three years ago, and entered the 2020 contest with strong name recognition and an existing base here.

But he no longer has the sole home-field advantage. This cycle, Sanders is forced to share the primary goodwill that comes with being a politician from a neighboring state with Massachusetts’ Warren — his longtime friend who is nipping at his heels, and in some cases surpassing him, in the polls, and who has built a strong organization of her own.

Both candidates have declined to attack the other thus far. When asked by a Herald reporter what he would say to those who believe Warren is the progressive who can win the nomination, Sanders focused on his ability to beat President Trump.

“All I can say is if you look at the polling — and I’m very dubious about polling in general, it’s a crazy time to be polling – but I think every credible national poll that has been done in the past year has had me beating Trump in some cases by double-digit numbers,” Sanders said.

His 2016 victory in New Hampshire – plus “strong grassroots support” in Michigan and Wisconsin that Sanders won but that went to Trump in the general election – leaves Sanders “in a position to defeat Trump in many of the battleground states,” he said.

Sanders knows New Hampshire is important. The campaign says it has 45 staffers and six offices in New Hampshire, and more than 1 million volunteers signed up overall.

Campaigns are “won by people on the ground,” said Sanders surrogate Josh Fox. “I think that our incredible grassroots organization is going to help really pull this through.”

Sanders spoke of using policies such as “Medicare for All” and a $15 minimum wage to rally American voters across the spectrum of age and race — despite concerns from moderate Democrats that the self-proclaimed democratic socialist’s ideas are too liberal and could alienate centrists. Sanders is also aware of the criticism that his policies, such as free college tuition, are just giving things away.

“We pay for what we propose to do. When we talk about making public colleges and universities tuition-free, we pay for that through a modest tax on Wall Street speculation,” Sanders said. “The bottom line is people should also ask themselves how come under Trump we could afford to give over a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the top 1%?”