Clinton, Sanders join forces for debt-free college roundtable

Hillary Clinton brought her campaign’s push for millennial voters to New Hampshire on Wednesday, as she appeared alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders to tout her plan for debt-free college. 

{mosads}The event sought to present a united front from the former presidential rivals, as Clinton, the Democratic nominee, struggles to motivate young voters to turn out for her general election bid against Republican Donald Trump. 

It’s not the first time the two candidates have appeared alongside each other since their tough primary, and the Wednesday event comes as the Clinton campaign continues to step up its efforts with young voters, starting with a speech last week where she asked them for a “fair hearing.” 

Clinton gave effusive praise to the Vermont senator to open the event, lauding him as “one of the most passionate champions for equality and justice that I have ever seen.” 

That alone is a sign of how far the two candidates have come, considering the Clinton campaign once deployed civil rights icon and Rep. John Lewis (Ga.) to question Sanders’ involvement in the civil rights movement. 

“Bernie’s campaign energized so many young people, some of you in this crowd,” Clinton said at the University of New Hampshire. 

“There is no group of Americans who have more at stake in this election than young Americans. So much of what will happen will affect your lives your jobs, the kind of country we are,” she added.

After the two politicians spoke, they sat down for a roundtable on Clinton’s debt-free college plan, which was largely influenced by Sanders as Clinton worked to win his endorsement after the primary.

The candidates spoke in lock-step about education policy, regularly calling back to echo the other’s points. 

Sanders promised that in his role on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, he’d do everything possible to help ferry Clinton’s legislation through the Senate if she’s elected and the pair criticized the government putting profits ahead of the nation’s students. 

“We are going to end the federal government making money off of lending money to students to get an education,” Clinton said. 

“We’ve had in effect zero percent interest rates for eight years. It’s outrageous and it makes me furious that young people and their families have been told that the only way to borrow money to go to college … is to sign up for loans at 8, 10, 12 percent.” 

Progressives regularly cite college affordability as a main concern for young voters and Sanders made free public tuition a centerpiece of his campaign. 

While Clinton holds a lead with young voters, many Democrats are concerned she shored up the voting bloc that made up a key constituency for President Obama’s two elections.

A recent Quinnipiac University poll found her leading the field with 31 percent of likely voters between the ages of 18 and 34. But Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson was close behind with 29 percent, despite the fact that his overall poll numbers put him well short of qualifying for the debate stage.