HANOVER — At T minus 60 minutes before Elizabeth Warren arrived on Saturday, some 200 people were milling around outside a 450-seat ballroom at the Hanover Inn for her first appearance on the Dartmouth College campus as a declared candidate for president.
And the Massachusetts senator’s student volunteers already were raising their voices above the buzz of a crowd that would grow to some 600 before Warren, fresh from a house party in Lebanon, bounded into the hall.
When she entered, the 69-year-old candidate hurdled a spectator’s dog in the aisle and then scratched her own — a year-old golden retriever named Bailey — on her way to the podium to deliver a stump speech built on her childhood and early adulthood on the bubble in the lower middle class in Oklahoma.
Her father, she recalled, managed to support his wife, their three sons and his daughter until suffering a heart attack that he survived, though he took a long time to recover. Even though the boys were grown and only Elizabeth remained in the house, Warren said, “We lost the family station wagon during this time. When my parents talked at night, I heard words like ‘mortgage’ and ‘foreclosure,’ heavy words for a little kid.”
Ultimately, Warren’s mother went to work outside the home.
“She walked to the Sears and got a minimum-wage job,” Warren said. “It saved our house. It saved our family. Through all this, we thought we were alone.
“But it’s the story of millions of families around this country.”
Only these days, she added, minimum wage doesn’t come close to helping Americans on the margin from falling into poverty. And a Washington establishment full of lobbyists for multinational corporations is listening less than ever to those Americans — on education, climate policy and banking policy, she said.
“That is wrong,” Warren said, “and that is why I’m in the fight.”
That fighting spirit is a big part of what brought West Lebanon resident Ilana Grallert to the campaign stop, wearing a purple T-shirt inscribed with the words “Neverthless, She Persisted.” The phrase became a rallying cry for Warren supporters in 2017, when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., used those words to explain why he silenced Warren during a speech opposing the nomination of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions for U.S. attorney general.
“I got it when they tried to shut her up,” said Grallert, who works at Dartmouth College’s Baker-Berry Library. “I liked that part about her, that she wouldn’t be quiet. And I’m hearing more that I really like.”
For Ashkaan Mahjoob, Warren’s appearance was a bonus of the annual Dimensions of Dartmouth weekend for members of the Class of 2023 and their parents — an introduction to the New Hampshire primary campaign that he’ll witness firsthand starting in the fall.
“I knew it was a cool opportunity,” said Mahjoob, a resident of Laguna Hill, Calif. “Every candidate comes to campus at some point.”
So far, he said, he hasn’t committed to any of the 17 declared or aspiring challengers to incumbent Donald Trump. Warren is one of six sitting U.S. senators and four woman senators who’ve thrown their hats in so far for the Democratic nomination.
“I’m trying to hear ( Warren’s) point of view, trying to get acquainted with all the candidates,” Mahjoob said. “I will definitely register to vote in the primary.”
During her first Upper Valley visit since a January stop in Claremont, Warren was seeking traction in a crowded field. According to a poll of registered New Hampshire voters that Saint Anselm College unveiled last week, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., leads the pack of declared candidates for the Democratic primary at 15.6 percent. Next come South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 10.7 percent; Warren at 8.7; and U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California at 6.8. Dartmouth graduate and New York U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand at just below 1 percent.
But ahead of all the declared candidates is former Vice President Joe Biden, yet to formally announce he’s running, who leads at 22.9 percent of voters polled.
Meanwhile, Sanders also leads the declared in fundraising: During the first three months of 2019, his campaign reported amassing $18.2 million, compared with $12 million for Harris, $9.4 million for former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, $7 million for Buttigieg and $6 million for Warren.
South Royalton residents Tim and Kellyann Falkenburg Wolfe didn’t let their ineligibility to vote in the first-in-the-nation primary keep them away from Warren’s visit.
“We’re not the target audience for our votes, obviously, but we’re an excellent volunteer source,” said Tim Wolfe, a native and former selectman of Tunbridge. “Plenty of people will be coming over from Vermont to campaign for their favorites.”
And right now, he added, Warren is “definitely near the top of my list,” while Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, is not, despite his democratic-socialist bona fides.
“He’s doing a great job as a senator,” Wolfe said of Sanders, “but I’m looking for something different in a president.”
During an interview after her appearance, Warren said she agrees with Sanders on the need to switch the health care system to a “Medicare for all” structure, but she avoided specifics about how it would be funded.
“We’re all paying for it now,” Warren said. “There are different pathways into Medicare for All that have been discussed. We’re going to find the money to provide that care.”
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304.