Clemens, Grizzle and Miltenberger reconvene with their Harvard Republican brethren at a Subway sandwich shop at the end of the afternoon. They know they won’t be encountering nearly as many fellow Bush supporters once they return to the “People’s Republic of Cambridge” that night.

The Harvard students are paid $10 an hour by the Bush campaign war chest for the time they spend canvassing.

“We would work for the president whether we got paid or not,” says Republican Club spokeswoman Lauren K. Truesdell ’05. “But since they’ve offered, it’s not like we’re going to turn them down.”

Stephen E. Dewey ’07, a Kirkland House government concentrator, says he’s confident his canvassing made a difference. “The big thing is just reminding them to vote,” says Dewey, who has pledged to return to New Hampshire for the final 72 hours of the campaign.

Aaron J. Mowery ’08, a Weld Hall resident, is particularly encouraged by his conversation with a seven-year-old red-haired girl who said she has personally met First Lady Laura Bush and will “absolutely” support the president.

Bush appears to be polling well among the youth demographic in Merrimack. Alison Hoover, a Tufts freshman who rode to New Hampshire with the Harvard canvassers, learns from another very young Republican that her elementary school class favored Bush 15-1 in a recent mock vote.

A poll released by the American Research Group over the weekend shows Bush leading Kerry 47 percent to 46 percent in the Granite State—well within a 4 percent margin of error.

—Staff writer Daniel J. Hemel can be reached at hemel@fas.harvard.edu.