For Baez-Ponce, 31, Sanders’s upbringing and his stances on issues like immigration and healthcare resonate on a personal level. She immigrated from Peru with her family on a travel visa in 2001, and was undocumented for several years. 

“As an immigrant myself, I can totally relate to Bernie’s story, the fact that he was an immigrant himself, a Jewish immigrant,” said Baez-Ponce, who co-founded the group Queens Latinos for Bernie. “When his family came to this country, the struggles that his family faced were very similar to the struggles that my family faced.”  

Baez-Ponce could not vote for Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primaries because she was a green card holder. But horrified by President Donald Trump’s win, she became a U.S. citizen in 2017 to be able to vote. She said Sanders has what it takes to beat Trump.

“This is the person that has been fighting for many rights for different people since before it was cool,” said Baez-Ponce. “I’m very confident that if Bernie wins the Democratic nomination he would actually beat Trump and presidential elections.” 

Tío Bernie (Uncle Bernie), as Hispanic supporters nicknamed Sanders, has won big among Latinos acrossin the early primaries. In Nevada, he garnered support from 53 percent of Latino voters, three times as much as former Vice President Joe Biden. The Vermont Senator won California, the biggest prize on Super Tuesday, with 49 percent of the Latino vote. Sanders is currently locked in a tight race for the nomination that will depend heavily on which candidate builds the strongest coalition.

A group of about a dozen people meet on a Sunday in a Jackson Heights apartment to phonebank for Bernie Sanders. Photo by Amanda Pérez Pintado

If Sanders wins the nomination, he will need the support of Latino voters like Baez to reach the White House. 

For the first time, Latinos are expected to be the largest racial or ethnic minority in a U.S. presidential election, according to Pew Research Center. A record 32 million Latinos are projected to be eligible to vote in 2020, just over 13% of all eligible voters. 

Michael Jones-Correa, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said he is not surprised by Latino voters’ support for Sanders. The senator’s progressive economic platform and Medicare for All proposal, said Jones-Correa, appeal to Latinos. 

“Latinos tend to be more likely to lack health insurance than other Americans,” said Jones-Correa, director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity, Race and Immigration. “It makes it a higher priority for them.”

Many Latinos, he said, choose Sanders over Biden because they associate the former vice president with Barack Obama’s administration, which deported about 3 million people from the U.S. 

“A lot of them look at Biden as vice president of an administration that was not entirely fair to Latino immigrants,” said Jones-Correa. “Deportation was highest in the Obama administration. That history still sticks with Latino voters.”

Sanders, 78, is particularly well liked by younger voters, said Jones-Correa. Latinos are among the youngest racial or ethnic groups in the U.S., with a median age of 30 in 2008. 

Jones-Correa attributed his popularity among young people to his criticism of the party and problems in the country, as well as his consistency in issues like health and inequality.

Jones-Correa said Sanders’s biggest challenge is getting his younger supporters to the voting booths. Younger voters, he said, do not turnout as much as older voters. But he said Sanders’s campaign has the most effective outreach to Latinos and infrastructure that resembles the community “much more than any candidate.”

“As Latinos, I really feel like it’s our election. I’m sick and tired of feeling like a second-class citizen. This is why this is our moment in history right now. We have a second chance to use our voices… to support Bernie Sanders’ message.” –@itselivazquez pic.twitter.com/Q2NuVC6c1D

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 6, 2020

Sitting on a couch at a bar in Meserole Street, Brooklyn, Ricardo Aca, member of Make the Road Action, watched the Super Tuesday results through a giant television screen as people chatted around him. Two weeks before, Aca traveled to Nevada to knock on doors and mobilize Latino voters along with other members of the immigrants rights group, which endorsed Sanders. 

Aca said the group supports the senator because he has “the strongest platform for immigration” and “a pathway to citizenship.”  Sanders’s immigration policy includes reinstating and expanding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, breaking up Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, and instituting a moratorium on all deportations. 

“We see someone that has consistently been supporting black and brown communities, has stood with our movements,” said Aca. “He believes in the power of organizing and drafting legislation.”

As a DACA recipient, Aca cannot vote. But he hopes Sanders will reach the Oval Office and implement his immigration reform.

“Having a pathway to citizenship and an immigration reform that’s humane is super important,” said Aca. “That does not mean just fixing DACA or having a pathway to citizenship for those that have DACA or TPS. It means having a pathway to citizenship for somebody like my parents who may not have come here when they were younger, but also deserve a place in this country, and to be treated with respect and dignity.”

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Sydney Fishman is a graduate student in Reporting the Nation/NY in Multimedia.

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“I couldn’t think of anything more important to do right now”, says her husband, Paul, 35, at a debate watch party at a venue on the west side of the Merrimack River in Manchester.

 At the moment, Faye and Paul may have reason for optimism. In a primary that is regarded as trend-setting for the presidential election in November, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is the leading candidate, polling at 28% of potential votes. In second position is former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg with 21% of prospective votes.

Medicare for all, an overhaul of the current health care system into a single-payer government-run health plan proposed by Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, is the main reason Faye and Paul support Sanders’ bid.

  Faye and Paul are not their real names.  Because they are disclosing personal medical information they have asked that their names not be revealed.

  “Bernie is on the side of the uninsured and underinsured”, said Ohio Senator Nina Turner and co-chair of the Sanders campaign, at a gathering of committed supporters at the debate watch party.

 Faye has cerebral palsy and had an eight-month gap in her health insurance which left her without medical coverage.

“We were hoping that she doesn’t get sick”, said her husband, who spends most of his time taking care of her. Paul’s income as a caregiver for his wife was considered too high, so they lost their Medicare coverage, a federally funded health insurance covering citizens with limited income.

 The couple was also no longer eligible for subsidies on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace because of Paul’s income. Paul challenged the decision of Covered California, the state’s official health marketplace, but after months of very little progress the couple enrolled in the private Kaiser health insurance.

“Kaiser is very expensive”, said Paul, “but we couldn’t wait forever.”

 Faye recalled that the months she wasn’t covered were “terrifying.” She had no regular doctor and had to pay for treatment out-of-pocket. “When you have cerebral palsy, stuff goes wrong quite often,’’ she added.

 A Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) survey shows 85% of Americans are in favor of the government doing more to help provide health insurance. It’s not only patients, but also the majority of physicians in the Granite State now supporting a single-payer health insurance system, said Gary Sobelson former president of the New Hampshire Medical Society, in a telephone interview.

“About one-third of my patients are on Medicare and this system works well for me,” said Sobelson, a family physician in Concord.

     Whether it will be “Medicare for all” proposed by Bernie Sanders and Warren or the less radical “Medicare for all who want it” suggested by Pete Buttigieg, doctors and their money are shifting their campaign contributions towards the Democratic Party.

    Health professionals donated $50 million to the Republican Party in the 2012 presidential campaign, which was $15 million more than what they gave the Democratic campaign. In the current presidential campaign the same group has donated $30.6 million to Democrats, which is twice as much that what they have given to President Trump’s re-election campaign according to data from the Open Secrets website which tracks campaign contributions.

“We shifted away from the Republican Party”, said Sobelson. He said that, decades ago, physicians were self-employed, running their business and, mostly,  Republican voters. But, he said that with more and more physicians working as employers in larger medical offices and hospitals their perception of the job changed.

   “We work now with the premise that everyone should be insured, whether they are unemployed, or students, 65 or 25 years old,” said Sobelson. “It’s the sub specialists who are concerned about lower reimbursements due to a government-run single-payer system, he added.  “Those who are making a large sum of money.”

Not everyone, however, in the New Hampshire medical community shares Sobelson’s views.  On the east side of the Merrimack River in Manchester, a rapidly growing biotech industry is concerned about losing money through Medicare-For-All and by proposals to cut drug prices.

   What was two centuries ago a hub for the textile industry has now turned into New Hampshire’s own Silicon Alley, focused on manufacturing human tissue and groundbreaking medical innovation. Both the Republican Governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu, and Democrat Mayor Joyce Craig have big hopes for the over 200 companies in the biotech and medtech industry.

    But when Sanders and Warren announced their Medicare-For–All program in the summer of 2019, it was bad news for the industry of biopharmaceuticals because the proposal would reduce the prices paid for drugs.  As a result, the Nasdaq Biotech Index fell 4.5%, stocks of biopharma companies with locations in New Hampshire such as Merck & Co., also went down 4%.

      While biotech stock prices recovered towards the end of the year, the nation’s largest biotech industry association, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), has so far donated more to the Republican Party, which is seeking to cut the scope of the Affordable Care Act.

    Tension in the biotech sector about policy steps to make health care affordable was still visible at the end of 2019.  In December last year 138 leaders of biotech companies wrote a letter to advocate for the rejection of the bipartisan Lower Drug Costs Now Act. This legislation, which is still pending in Congress, would allow the government to negotiate lower prices with pharmaceutical companies. Profits of biotech companies, an industry with high costs for research and development and a volatile market, fear significant losses.

BIO, which also represents New Hampshire biotech companies, did not answer questions on how biotech companies react to the increasingly popular Medicare-For-All.

Sobelson, however, hopes that this industry sector will not influence slow down the movement to extend public health insurance plans across the US.

“While biotech innovations and the medical tools are remarkable, even miraculous and physicians are extremely excited about innovations, this is somewhat marginal in the bigger picture,’’ said Sobelson.

Faye and her husband, Paul, spent about $3,000 on health care costs during the time they both weren’t covered. Paul was grateful that Faye stayed healthy throughout the eight months and had no serious health problems.  “I don’t think anyone should be in this position ever”, said Faye. “People’s health care should not be just simply cancelled.”

Marta Orosz is a graduate student in the Business and Economic Reporting Program

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Just three days before the New Hampshire primary, the Vermont Senator spoke to the crowd from the blue-carpeted stage at the SNHU Arena, rotating slightly from his hunched position behind the plexiglass podium to wave to the designated support section behind him.  The crowd, including the bleachers full of his fans waving magenta light-up “Bernie” signs, cheered in the cavernous arena.

The proclamation has been a standard part of Sanders’ stump speech on the 2020 campaign trail. But to some Democrats, especially those who actively support other candidates, it’s hardly a given that his supporters will vote for the party’s candidate if it’s not Bernie. And his supporters, in turn, are irritated at the stereotype of Bernie Bros, a group of mostly white men known for their abrasive behavior online. They see it as a way to underplay the campaign’s diversity.

“The Bernie bros stereotype is specifically designed to suppress people of color and LGBT voices,” said Isaiah Tobias Lee at a Sanders debate watch party in Manchester on Friday night.

Lee is a 19-year-old trans man who says that trans rights and rights for indigenous people are his top concerns in choosing a candidate. He believes the Sanders campaign will support those rights, and the rights of all people of color, more than anyone else in the race.

Lee is currently taking a semester off from Rhode Island College to canvass for Sanders, but is originally from Kentucky. In addition to the Sanders campaign he is involved with the Sunrise Movement, a youth climate action advocacy group. When asked how he relates to friends and family who have chosen to support other candidates in the 2020 presidential race, he said, “I mostly distance myself from every friend who hasn’t decided to vote for Bernie.”

New Hampshire voter Jonah Manning, a 28-year-old cook in Portsmouth, echoed Lee’s sentiments about the diversity of the campaign. “Even if you do create a stereotype of Bernie bros that is a pejorative,” he said, “Obviously the frame is hollow because he has the most diverse supporters.”

In 2016 Sanders struggled to match Hillary’s support in nonwhite communities. But this time around, Sanders’ movement is much more diverse, both racially and in terms of other metrics like gender and education level. This is likely due to new talking points on systemic racial injustice in addition to his standard mantra on economic inequality.

Polling data from the Economist suggest that while Vice President Biden leads with Black voters, Sanders leads the Hispanic vote in all education and gender categories. He is also polling ahead of any other candidate with white women under the age of 30 and Hispanic women of all ages. In most other identity categories, he and Senator Elizabeth Warren are neck-and-neck, except for white males under 45, where Sanders again is at an advantage.

Christopher Williams, a Sanders volunteer from Idaho who has canvassed in both Iowa and New Hampshire, said he was “wildly proud” of the campaign in the Hawkeye State. “We ended up with 40% of the nonwhite vote, and we only ended up with 26% of the votes. That we got almost double that of the nonwhite vote is huge.”

But in a state like New Hampshire, where the nonwhite vote makes up a very small percentage of the electorate (the state’s population is 93% white) — the question of “Bernie Bro” cyberbullying remains. And although the candidate has asked his followers to “engage respectfully,” the loyal haven’t always listened.

When controversy surfaced in January over whether Sanders had made a comment to Warren about a female candidate’s electability, #RefundWarren trended on Twitter the next day, appearing alongside screenshots of donors asking for a return of their contributions to the Massachusetts Senator’s campaign. Sanders supporters lashed out and called the candidate a liar, terrorizing her vocal online supporters. Almost every tweet from Warren’s campaign still elicits a flood of snake emojis and hashtags like #WarrenIsASnake.

Sanders supporters on Twitter also have several hashtags to attack other candidates, including many targeted at Mayor Pete Buttigeig – #WallStreetPete, #MayorCheat, and the rat emoji,  apparently a mean-spirited attack on the South Bend mayor’s appearance.

Ethan Manning, Jonah’s brother and a student at the University of New Hampshire, attributes the online actions of his fellow Sanders fans to the passion of the campaign.  “Because of all the activity and energy, you’re going to see people saying stupid shit and tweeting rat emojis and snake emojis,” he said.

“That stuff is just like peripheral,” Manning added. “It’s ancillary to the fact that this is a political thing, and these policies are affecting peoples’ lives.”

For the most part, Sanders supporters on the streets of Manchester seemed not to reflect the movement’s online toxicity.

“They’re mostly harmless,” said Emily, a Warren supporter who preferred not to use her last name. The question on her mind, however, was if Sanders’ coalition would turn out to vote for another Democratic nominee in November. “My hope is that, just like how we would vote for any winner of the primary, that they would do the same, and keep that same kind of energy for whoever the final candidate is,” she said.

Some Sanders supporters indicated that they would, although with varying degrees of hesitation. Jonah Manning said he would vote for anyone against Trump in November, but added that the question, “doesn’t address the despair I would feel voting for another person.”

His brother Ethan would too, unless there was an extenuating circumstance. “If they murder Bernie at the convention and there’s like some demonic ritual that happens, no,” he said with a laugh. “But other than that, I probably will.”

Serafina Smith is a graduate student in the Magazine and Digital Storytelling concentration.

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