Sanders appeals to Warren wing

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — For Democrats who had hoped to lure Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren into a presidential campaign, independent Sen. Bernie Sanders might be the next-best thing.

Mr. Sanders, who is opening his official presidential campaign today in Burlington, Vt., aims to ignite a grass-roots fire among left-leaning Democrats wary of Hillary Rodham Clinton. He is laying out an agenda in step with the party’s progressive wing and compatible with Ms. Warren’s platform — reining in Wall Street banks, tackling college debt and creating a government-financed infrastructure jobs program.

“I think our views are parallel on many, many issues,” Mr. Sanders said in an interview with the Associated Press, describing Ms. Warren as a “good friend.”

Mr. Sanders caucuses with the Democrats in Washington and is running for the Democratic nomination. He and Democratic former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley are vying to become the primary alternative to Ms. Clinton. Much of the energy behind a Clinton alternative has been directed to drafting Ms. Warren, but she has repeatedly said she won’t run.

For Mr. Sanders, a key question is electability. Ms. Clinton is in a commanding position by any measure. Yet his supporters in New Hampshire say his local ties and longstanding practice of holding town hall meetings and people-to-people campaigning — a staple in the nation’s first primary state — could serve him well.

“Toward the Vermont border, it’s like a love-fest for Bernie,” said Jerry Curran, an Amherst, N.H., Democratic activist who has been involved in the draft-Warren effort. “He’s not your milquetoast left-winger.”

A self-described democratic socialist, Mr. Sanders has raised more than $4 million since announcing in early May that he would be a presidential candidate. He suggested in the interview that raising $50 million for the primaries was a possibility. “That would be a goal,” he said.