Advertisement NH Primary Source: Kamala Harris wins over student organizer with town hall answer Senator’s campaign fellows, volunteers working on campuses during summer Share Shares Copy Link Copy

STUDENT ORGANIZING EFFORT. In April, University of New Hampshire student Ben Bernier was picked to ask Sen. Kamala Harris a question about gun safety at a CNN town hall. He said this week that he entered the five-candidate marathon at Saint Anselm College undecided but left as a Harris supporter.Bernier, a history major who aspires to be an educator, told Harris he was disturbed by schools being targeted for mass shootings and asked her specifically how she would keep schools safe.Harris outlined her plan for universal background checks and an assault weapons ban. She reiterated that if she is elected and if Congress does not act in her first 100 days in office, she will take executive action to address it. View her plan here.Bernier, who will be a senior in September, said, “The clarity she provided and her willingness to take executive action sealed the deal for me. We need a president and Congress that act so that students are not afraid to go to school but are excited to go to school.”Benier is now a Harris campaign summer fellow, earning $15-an-hour to organize the Seacoast region for her campaign. He said he spoke to the Epping Democratic Committee on Tuesday night and has been meeting voters one-on-one in coffee shops.“It’s a lot of community building. The New Hampshire primary is still quite a ways away but we know that a Donald Trump victory is very possible," Bernier said. "We need to start our grassroots movement now so that we are not caught off guard. We have to mobilize months in advance.”Harris’ campaign says it has an active organizing program with volunteer student leaders on most major campuses in the state, including Dartmouth, UNH, Saint Anselm, as well as on college campuses in Massachusetts, including Harvard and the University of Massachusetts-Boston.Dartmouth volunteer leader Kos Twum-Antwi said most of her group’s organizing during the summer will take place on Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms. She said they will also organize watch parties when Harris makes appearances on television and intend to intensify their activities when more students return to campus in September.Twum-Antwi said Harris won her over with her sharp questioning of then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and what she said was the compassion Harris showed for Kavanaugh’s alleged assault victim, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.