As the leading non-profit organization that registers voters at concerts, HeadCount wanted to know what young people in New Hampshire really thought about the candidates as the primary approached. So we road tripped to the Granite State, to capture the energy of the primaries and interview young people volunteering for campaigns, attending rallies, or just shopping for candidates.
We visited a Donald Trump rally, Bernie Sanders’ and Hillary Clinton’s respective New Hampshire headquarters, a Marco Rubio town hall and a Ted Cruz meet and greet. We got to ask Senator Cruz about his favorite music (he didn’t answer). We met a Rand Paul supporter who'd driven all the way from Maryland, just before Paul dropped out. We talked to a Iraq War veteran who supports Bernie Sanders, an immigrant who’s rallying for Donald Trump, and a Mariah Carey fan supporting Marco Rubio.
In all, we conducted approximately 40 interviews with young voters.
To our surprise, we did not encounter any young people supporting Hillary Clinton. We tried - reaching out to the Clinton campaign in advance through multiple channels, and also visiting two of her New Hampshire offices, to request an interview with a volunteer or spokesperson. But the campaign chose not to participate.
The most important thing our travels revealed is that you can never guess who a young voter supports by how they look or what they wear, or what music they listen to.
This is our second video about young voters in New Hampshire. The first, from 2012, can be viewed here: HeadCount Goes to Hampshire - 2012.
Special thanks to Alex Scully for filming and editing this piece. And to Cass McCombs and Twiddle for proving the music. Most of all, thanks to the people who came out to show their support of candidates and shared their perspective with HeadCount.
We hope you enjoy some of the unique personalities we met on the road in New Hampshire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUVC5AzikkY