CAPITOL HILL - Democratic Party unity was the target when Hillary Clinton, the party's presumptive nominee for the presidential election, met with fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill. But some rank-and-file Democrats who campaigned against Clinton are still skeptical about voting for her in the November general election, and that could put the party's united front at risk.
Mackenzie Hiltz, a 20-year-old woman from Vermont, home state of Senator Bernie Sanders, says talk of party unity will not affect her choice when it comes time to vote.
Asked whether she will vote for Clinton, as former Sanders supporters are being urged to do, Hiltz was firm: "Absolutely not. I truly believe she is in it [politics] for the money, and I don’t care if she gets the nomination."
Hiltz said she feels Clinton has changed her positions on key issues over the years, and does not have the same passionate concern for ordinary Americans' problems that Sanders displayed.
Among Sanders supporters overall, Hiltz is not alone in her beliefs.
A Bloomberg Politics this month of likely general-election voters said 45 percent of those who have supported Sanders do not intend to vote for Clinton, and nearly half of that group told pollsters they will vote instead for Republican Donald Trump.
Congressman James Clyburn, who was in the group of Democrats who met with Clinton, said, “That is a problem for the party."
Clyburn, who is from South Carolina, said he hopes the Vermont senator will try to change his supporters' minds. “I would love to see Mr. Sanders endorse [Clinton], go all in, and I think he will.”
Sanders, who was not at Wednesday's meeting, appeared to be coming to terms with his political situation following months of primary-election battles with Clinton across the country. “It doesn't appear that I'm going to be the nominee," Sander told an interviewer (for the cable television network C-SPAN), "so I'm not going to be determining the scope of the convention."
He was referring to the convention platform - the formal statement of a U.S. political party's principles and goals, presented during the national meeting in each presidential election year. Congressman Elijah Cummings told reporters ideas for the platform were not specifically discussed with Clinton, but he predicted a final draft would be completed this weekend.
“We’re trying to meld the positions of Clinton and Bernie Sanders - and by the way, that’s coming along very good so far,” Cummings said.
Sanders' faithful hope the main economic message the senator stressed throughout his campaign will live on: ending corporations' excessive influence on government, and bringing the country's big banks under control - even breaking them up, if necessary.
But for die-hard supporters like Mackenzie Hiltz, even a move by Clinton to adopt the Sanders program might not be enough. “I just don’t believe that she’ll make use of Bernie Sanders' ideas and follow through,” Hiltz said.
Members of Congress at the Clinton meeting said she acknowledged the difficulty of winning over supporters of her opponent from the primaries. Congressman Javier Becerra of California, one of those said to be under consideration as her possible vice-presidential running-mate, said: “I especially appreciated her remark that there are people who won’t vote for her, but she is prepared to vote for them and work on their behalf.”
Clinton is clearly positioning herself as a candidate of inclusiveness, Becerra said. "She’s going to go out there and talk to everyone in America. Not just [to] Sanders supporters, but she’s going to talk to those who are not supporting Democrats because, as she said, she wants to be the candidate for everyone.”
House Democrats said their meeting with Clinton took place in a “calm, relaxed” atmosphere. The second-ranking Democrat in the House, Steny Hoyer, said there was "unity, enthusiasm and confidence in our candidate."
He forecast there would be a "stark contrast" on display when Trump meets with House Republicans in about two weeks. The meeting is currently scheduled for July 7.
Clinton told the Democrats she plans a 50-state election strategy, aiming to win back control of both chambers of Congress from the Republicans, who have wielded majority control since the last presidential vote in 2008.
In Vermont, meanwhile, Hiltz says she has been constantly active on social media, talking to other young Sanders supporters about their opposition to Clinton, and how that could swing support to Trump. “Beating Donald Trump is a huge concern of mine,” says Hiltz.