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Audience members listen as Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks at a rally in Exeter, New Hampshire on Friday, February 5, 2016.(Photo: GLENN RUSSELL/FREE PRESS)
PORTSMOUTH, N.H.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>—<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Freddye Ross<span style="color: Red;">*</span>will<span style="color: Red;">*</span>vote for Bernie Sanders if he wins the Democratic nomination,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>but she won't campaign for him.
A member of the mostly black New Hope Baptist Church, Ross is active in politics and is campaigning for Hillary Clinton in advance of Tuesday's primary. She<span style="color: Red;">*</span>cited affordable college education, equal pay for women, and climate change as issues that matter most to her.
“Hillary is a proven,” Ross, 75,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said as she left church services Sunday. “She’s not saying anything she can’t do.”
Over the past few weeks,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Sanders has cut into<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Clinton’s national lead, according to a January poll released by Monmouth University. But in one key demographic, Clinton’s actually gaining ground. The same poll showed that support for Clinton among black and Latino voters has increased by 10<span style="color: Red;">*</span>percentage points, while Sanders enjoyed a 3 percentage point boost. Support among black and Latino communities will become even more important as the race moves beyond Iowa and New Hampshire.
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Looking ahead, the Sanders campaign is trying to convince black and Latino voters that the Vermont senator’s policies will be best for them. Sanders supporters believe that as African-American voters learn more about the democratic socialist, more will switch their allegiance from Clinton to Sanders.
Sanders scored an endorsement Friday<span style="color: Red;">*</span>from<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Ben Jealous, former leader<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of the NAACP.
Jealous was originally supposed to appear at a news<span style="color: Red;">*</span>conference following a rally in Exeter, N.H., but the campaign was forced to cancel the appearance because of snow. Jealous instead endorsed the Vermont senator during a conference call<span style="color: Red;">*</span>later that afternoon. He's also campaigning for Sanders in South Carolina, alongside Erica Garner, the daughter of Eric Garner, a Staten Island man who died after a police officer put him in a chokehold.
In his prepared remarks, Jealous said Sanders fit Martin Luther King Jr.’s definition of a great leader.
Ben Jealous, former head of the NAACP, endorsed Bernie Sanders on Friday. Jealous said Sanders was a leader in the vein of MLK.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Courtesy of the Sanders campaign)
“Bernie Sanders has the courage to confront the institutionalized bias that stains our nation,” he said. He praised Sanders’ opposition to the death penalty and his plan to end mass incarceration.
“Bernie Sanders has been principled, courageous, and consistent in fighting the evils that Dr. King referred to as the 'giant triplets'<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of racism, militarism and greed,” he said.
The Vermont senator has also been endorsed by black and Latino politicians and activists: Cornel West,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Rep.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Keith Ellison, D-Minn., Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., and progressive Chicago politician Jesus "Chuy" Garcia.
Sanders spoke<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Friday night to concerns of black and Latino voters while speaking<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at a New Hampshire Democrat fundraiser. He<span style="color: Red;">*</span>promised comprehensive immigration reform and addressed police violence.
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“We are tired of seeing unarmed people shot by police,” he said, adding that any police officer who breaks the law should be held accountable.
“I like a lot of what Bernie has to say,” Freddye's husband, Fred Ross,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>chimed in, but he doesn’t see Sanders as a practical choice and is also supporting Clinton.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>He was formerly the head of the New Hampshire Seacoast chapter of the NAACP, but spoke to the Free Press solely as a private citizen and did not want his opinion to be taken as an endorsement on behalf of anyone except himself.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>He said Jealous's endorsement didn't sway him.
"I've always been a person who thinks for myself," he said.
The Rev.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Arthur Hilson urged his congregation, that includes Freddye and Fred Ross,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to vote in the primary.
“As black people we need to stand up<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and vote our conscience,” he said near the end of Sunday service at New Hope Baptist.
Hilson’s conscience is telling him to vote for Hillary Clinton.
Hilson said Sanders is a “good man,” but he<span style="color: Red;">*</span>is tired of hearing Sanders<span style="color: Red;">*</span>speak over and over again about the rich and the poor and Wall Street. Still, he would<span style="color: Red;">*</span>vote for the candidate who wins<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the Democratic nomination.
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The 80-year-old pastor said he wants to see<span style="color: Red;">*</span>similarities between the black electorate and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>New Hampshire's independent voters.
“Black people shouldn’t put all their eggs in one basket, and no one should take black voters for granted,” he said.
In his closing remarks for the service, he reminded the roughly two dozen people in attendance that it was Black History month and that it took years of fighting to get women and African-Americans the right to vote.
On Sunday, Clinton left New Hampshire, despite trailing in the polls, to visit Flint, Mich.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>She called the issue of lead-tainted water an economic and racial injustice. Earlier this week, Sanders opened a campaign office in the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in the majority-black city.
Contributing: The Associated Press. Follow<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Jess Aloe on Twitter: @jess_aloe<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
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