Young male voters proving key for Sanders in New Hampshire

NASHUA, N.H. — Gloria Steinem may have been right about one thing: Bernie Sanders is where the boys are.

The feminist icon took heat late last week for saying that young women are supporting Sanders to meet boys as an explanation of why Hillary Clinton is struggling with this demographic (Steinem later apologized).

But perhaps more interesting is the extent to which men are aligned with Sanders, who enjoys a 46-point advantage with male voters in New Hampshire, according to a recent CNN/WMUR poll. It's that overwhelming advantage that's helped give the Vermont senator a healthy lead in the Granite State, which holds its first-in-the-nation primary on Tuesday.

"The missing story, is why the heck is Bernie Sanders getting 70% support from Democratic men? It’s extraordinarily high," said Andy Smith, a University of New Hampshire pollster. In 2008, Clinton got 46% of the female vote while, Obama and Edwards combined got 59% of the male vote in the Granite State.

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There are many reasons why Sanders is a magnet for young males beyond the fact that Clinton’s bid to become the first female president may not resonate as much with them. Younger men, who tend to prize independence, are especially receptive to Sanders’ anti-Wall Street calls for “revolution” versus Clinton’s more incremental approach, for example..

As Sanders made his final push in New Hampshire on Monday at Daniel Webster Community College in Nashua, groups of mostly male students huddled in a barn listening to Willie Nelson’s On the Road Again (Clinton, by contrast, often begins her rallies with female empowerment music), as Sanders began his speech with a mention of the Super Bowl and paid tribute to the military.

Waving his arms and pointing his finger for emphasis, he also stressed elements of his core message, which included "anger" over youth unemployment and "Wall Street greed, recklessness."

Lee Miringhoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, said just as Clinton’s best demographic is older women, Sanders’ is younger men who tend to consider themselves independents, which have long been a key component of the New Hampshire electorate.

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"Take away the independents and the room empties out," Miringhoff said. Further, "If you’re 20-years-old, political revolution is far more attractive than incrementalism," he said.

New Hampshire’s gender gap is not in line with national polls, which give Sanders a 10-point advantage with men, the same advantage Clinton enjoys with women, though her favorability rating is noticeably higher with women compared to men.

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So what's behind his overwhelming support with young New Hampshire males?

A number of college-age male students at Sanders’ rally said Sanders has been a sensation online.

"He’s genuine and he’s a pretty good guy, he wants everyone to have a level footing," said Dalton Paquette, a 21-year-old computer science major from Merrimack who was introduced to Sanders on Reddit. A popular Reddit page features action-figure memes of Sanders using Indiana Jones, Star Wars and other action movie themes.

Younger men already in the workforce may have additional motivations.

"Young guys are coming out of college and having a hard time finding jobs," said Matthew Szafranski, a 28-year-old from Springfield, Mass. who writes a political blog. "Some of that frustration is causing them to lean towards someone promising to do something completely different."

Young men supporting Sanders and those who don’t all say there is a distinct element of "cool" at play.

"There’s sort of, on social media, this mentality of supporting Bernie as the cool thing to do," said Adam Gerard, a 20-year-old Yale student who drove up to New Hampshire hear Bill Clinton speak on Sunday.

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His mannerisms are also something Hillary Clinton can’t pull off, said Gerard, who supports her. "There’s sort of this idea that Bernie is more passionate and can be louder than Hillary can," he said.  "If she was doing those things people would say, 'There’s this woman on stage who can’t control herself,' whereas when he does that, he’s a man."

A small group of Sanders’ male supporters have caused him some headaches, in particular an online group called "Bernie Bros" who’ve used sexist language to target Clinton and her supporters.

Some of these fans took their online taunting to the next level outside a major party gathering on Friday night. "What I experienced was so concerning to me," said Tom D’Angora, a theater producer from New York who was waving a Clinton sign and said he was targeted with vulgar language. "What I kept telling them was, this is the opposite of what Bernie Sanders is, he would be so disappointed."

The senator was forced to respond this weekend to the actions of some of these so-called Bernie Bros.

"Anybody who is supporting me that is doing the sexist things — we don't want them," he told CNN's State of the Union Sunday.

Yet most of Sanders’ supporters in the barn on Monday said they were just inspired by his message.

"I’m personally not a fan of big government," said Sean O’Hara, a 20-year-old Nashua student. "But I’m 100% against the idea of corporate funding," which has defined Sanders' candidacy. “I’m absolutely about that," he said.