Sanders grinds to top of poll

BERNIE SANDERS has taken the lead in Iowa and Hillary Clinton is now feeling the Bern.

The surging presidential candidate passed Clinton for the lead in the Democratic race in the crucial early-voting state, a poll released Thursday showed.

The Vermont senator got the support of 51% of likely Iowa caucus-goers, compared to 43% for Clinton, according to the latest CNN/ORC poll.

The results, released just 11 days before the Iowa caucuses, suggest the liberal message of the self-identifying Democratic socialist is resonating with voters.

As recently as last month, Clinton led Sanders by 18 percentage points.

In New Hampshire, Sanders is handily beating Clinton by 27 percentage points — 60% to

AP 33% — a CNN/WMUR poll shows. The former secretary of state had for months been seen as the party’s front-runner for the nomination. Sanders’ rise in the polls has coincided with an escalation in attacks by the Clinton campaign.

Earlier Thursday, Clinton aide David Brock told The Associated Press that a Sanders’ campaign ad showing the candidate surrounded by overwhelming white supporters was a “slight to the Democratic base.”

“From this ad it seems black lives don’t matter much to Bernie Sanders,” Brock said.

Sanders’ spokesman Michael Briggs shot back, blasting Clinton for hiring “a mudslinger like David Brock.”

“Bernie Sanders, as everyone knows, has one of the strongest civil rights records in Congress. He doesn’t need lectures on civil rights and racial issues from David Brock, the head of a Hillary Clinton super PAC,” Briggs said in a statement.