New national poll shows Sanders ahead of Clinton
WASHINGTON: Bernie Sanders has overtaken Hillary Clinton for the first time in a new national poll and is perilously close to the presidential frontrunner in Nevada, which holds Democratic caucuses on Saturday.
Sanders leads Clinton 47% to 44%, according to a Fox News poll released on Thursday, even though he trails her 42% to 47.6% in the average of polls by RealClearPolitics.
And in Nevada, once considered a cakewalk for Clinton, he has narrowed the gap considerably — he is just 2.4% behind her in the average of polls, 46.3 to Clinton’s 48.7%.
“One thing that is clear from our poll – and others – is that Clinton has been losing support and Sanders has been gaining,” Democratic pollster Chris Anderson, who conducted the new poll with Republican Daron Shaw, told Fox.
“And this process appears to have accelerated since the contests in Iowa and New Hampshire,” he added.
Sanders, a senator from Vermont, has run an insurgent campaign that has given him a narrow defeat, in the Iowa caucuses, and a thumping victory in New Hampshire.
Clinton and Sanders are tied at this stage, but the former secretary of state was earlier considered to have had a lock on Nevada and South Carolina, which hold primaries next week.
Though she continues to lead Sanders by a massive doubledigit margin in South Carolina, the race in Nevada has become extremely close in recent days.
“We’re working very hard to get a large voter turnout and if we do I feel confident we can win,” Sanders told reporters on Thursday.