U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont endorsed rival Hillary Clinton during a rally at Portsmouth High School Tuesday.
In doing so, he urged his supporters to unite behind the former secretary of state to defeat the Republican presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump. But the migration from team Sanders to team Clinton is a difficult, if not impossible, request for some of his supporters in Maine.
Stronger together. The message was emblazoned on the signs that festooned the Portsmouth High School gymnasium. And it was the central message that Sanders attempted to make with his announcement.
“I have come here to make it as clear as possible, as to why I am endorsing Hillary Clinton,” Sanders says to a cheering crowd.
Cheers from the crowd, but tears for Jenny Yasi, a 57-year-old Freeport resident who attended the event with her husband.
“Definitely I’m crying, literally I’m crying, trying to answer that question,” Yasi says.
The question is simple: Can Yasi and other Sanders supporters vote for Clinton? The answer, though, is complicated.
Sanders is the quintessential outsider, railing about rigged economies, rigged political systems and even rigged presidential nominating contests. His campaign, and his message, have struck a chord with voters who continue to express deep anxiety and resentment toward political and economic systems that they feel are aligned against them.
Such feelings have fueled Trump’s ascendancy. Sanders has benefited, too, drawing Democrats and independents to his rallies in a spirited challenge against Clinton.
Now he’s conceding defeat and asking his supporters to back his Democratic rival.
“She’s a phony. She’s a liar. She has flip-flopped. She doesn’t mean what she says because next week she’ll say something different,” says Nancy Oden of Jonesboro. “I cannot stand her. And I will not, under any circumstances, vote for her.”
Yasi’s objections to Clinton are just as pointed. But unlike Oden, a self-described independent who previously voted for Ralph Nader and who says she’ll shift her support to Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Yasi is worried about Trump.
“I completely believe what Bernie is saying, and what Hillary is saying, and we can see with our own eyes that Trump is insane and we can’t vote for him. So it’s a really hard day for me right now,” Yasi says.
“It’s not easy, but I think we’re all grown up here and we all understand the consequences,” says Diane Denk, a Sanders delegate who is also running for the Maine House of Representatives.
She says she understands why Sanders backers are having difficulty reconciling their feelings about Trump and Clinton. But ultimately, she says, the choice is easy: vote for Clinton and don’t sit out the election.
“We have our preferences and we don’t always get our own way. And for us to foolishly act like children and say it’s my way and stay home, I think that’s ridiculous,” Denk says.
Clinton’s ability to win over Sanders supporters won’t be easy. A recent YouGov poll showed that 61 percent of Sanders backers have an unfavorable view of Clinton, compared to just a 38 percent favorable view. And only 55 percent of Sanders supporters said they’d vote for Clinton over Trump on Election Day.
The same poll showed that 30 percent of Sanders supporters are undecided. That means they could be persuaded.
“I know what he thinks inside. He hates her. He hates her. I mean, he cannot stand her. I’m pretty good with people. Bernie Sanders cannot stand Hillary Clinton,” Trump said during a recent rally in Bangor.
Trump’s courtship of Sanders’ supporters has been going on for awhile, including during a recent rally in Bangor. The wooing continued Tuesday. In one of his vintage tweet storms, the Republican labeled Sanders a sell-out, all the while welcoming his supporters with “open arms.”
Clinton tried a different method of persuasion — praising Sanders’ reputation for standing up to power while urging his supporters to unite behind her.
“His reputation for passionate advocacy hasn’t always made him the most popular person in Washington. But you know what? That’s generally a sign you’re doing something right,” she says.
Flattery, and the prospect of a Trump presidency, might be enough to win over some Sanders backers. That includes Robyn Rosser, a 69-year-old Lewiston resident who volunteered for Sanders’ campaign when he crushed Clinton during the Maine Democratic caucuses.
Rosser says she has visceral dislike for Clinton, but she thinks Trump is a narcissist and dangerous.
“Now, with the possibility of Trump winning the election, I have to vote for Hillary,” she says.
