In New Hampshire, signs of a strong ground game for Bernie Sanders
NASHUA Stalking the icy neighborhood streets of Nashua with a clipboard and pen in his frozen hand last weekend, Alex Chilton stood out for two reasons: His bright red hair and rosy cheeks, which belied his English heritage, and his age.
At 17, the high school senior had forgotten his gloves in the 32-degree New Hampshire weather. But it wasn't stopping him from knocking on door after door in support of the man he wants to elect president: Bernie Sanders.
Chilton, a Massachusetts resident, is one of 6,300 Sanders volunteers swarming the streets and making phone calls as the primary quickly approaches. He embodies two of the main forces that have propelled Sanders ahead of Hillary Clinton in the Democratic polls.
"My parents are from the UK and they have a more subsidized education system," Chilton explained of the reasoning behind his dedication to Sanders. "As somebody who is looking at colleges and the future, that is pretty relevant to me. So I think Bernie is the candidate who has been proposing all of those things for years now - he hasn't gone back on that message, and even if it's difficult to get those policies through, I really want someone in the White House who is fighting for those things 24/7."
Recent polls show Sanders with a significant lead in New Hampshire. But as one of hundreds of canvassers fanning out across the state last weekend, Chilton treated every door with the intensity and discipline of a winter Olympian.
Some of his sales pitches were easier than others.
Chilton approached one woman sitting in a minivan outside of her home on Donna Street, who said she was supporting Sanders "150 percent."
"Oh my gosh, thank you," Chilton said. He launched into a gentle but persistent pitch to translate that support into actual volunteer work. Noticing her two children in the car, Chilton suggested weekday phone banking. They quickly settled on Thursday.
"I'll mark you down for Thursday and give you a follow up call on Wednesday," Chilton happily concluded.
Throughout the campaign, skeptics in the Democratic Party have questioned whether Sanders had the kind of professionalized campaign that could transform a groundswell of support into a well-oiled operation. His online fundraising put to rest much of those doubts: Sanders has raised over $73 million for his primary campaign, much of it in small dollars.
And at his Nashua campaign office on last Saturday morning, there were signs of a humming ground game. It was stuffed to the brim with first-time volunteers and veteran door-knockers offering them quick training sessions. A garbage can nearby was spilling over with empty Dunkin' Donuts carafes: volunteers were being fed with donuts and coffee before being handed walk sheets to carry with them as they went to knock on doors and hunt for votes.
Chilton's partner for the day was Amanda Murotake, a 36-year-old new Nashua native and 90's hip-hop fan who had been dead set against door-knocking for candidates until Sanders came on the scene. Sunday was her first time walking the streets for a political campaign.
"We don't want the government paying our bills," Murotake told CBS News. "What we want is to have a decent standard of living with our full time jobs and have an opportunity to save be feasible. That's all."
"I think he's a much more honest person. I've loved Hillary in the past, but she's just blown it. I don't trust her; I like people who don't have a filter," she added.
Despite his youth, Chilton was the veteran as he advised Murotake on how to draw up an efficient door-to-door plan, using the sheet of targeted voters -- Democrats and independents -- that had been provided to them by the campaign.
They worked efficiently, signing up supporters to get them involved in last minute get-out-the-vote pushes, and not wasting time on those who said they planned to vote for someone else. Even if a voter said they were voting for Clinton, they didn't waste valuable time trying to change minds.
One elderly woman with a "No Solicitors" sticker on her door peeked her head out onto the stoop just to tell them that she was voting for Clinton. Chilton and Murotake politely said goodbye and let the door close with without a follow-up.
"What I find is that it's better to go for that conversation and get somebody who is really interested in talking," Chilton explained of not wasting precious time on decided voters. "Because for all we know that's another valuable volunteer."
Murotake passed the clipboard recording the day's hit list back to Chilton and took the lead on the next house, knocking on 82-year-old Evangeline Pappas' door.
"Are you planning on voting for Martin O'Malley, Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders," Murotake spritely asked.
"I'm leaning towards Hillary but I've just been listening to Bernie, a few minutes ago actually, and he's very good, too," Pappas told Murotake. "I talked about him on the phone with my girlfriend in New York. I'm just hoping one of the Democratic candidates makes it!"
Chilton pounced.
"Let me tell you right now that we've seen a lot of these polls between Democratic candidates, but one of the polls that is very interesting is that Bernie Sanders when put against -- I think if we are talking about likely Republican nominees, we are talking about Trump, Cruz -- he beats them by a landslide in a recent poll," Chilton explained to Pappas.
"I would think he would," Pappas replied.
Then, the 17 year-old got personal.
"I've met him personally and he's a very kind man with a lot of integrity," he said.
Shaking her head, Pappas conceded, "He likes a lot of the things I like. So I listen very well with him, you're right."
They didn't get the 82-year-old to volunteer any of her time, but they had accomplished something that is perhaps most rewarding in a canvassers book: changing someone's mind.