New poll shows Sanders with huge lead in NH

Clinton says that the lagging in the polls doesn’t worry her, telling Today.com that, “No, I’m not nervous at all”. Now, just weeks from the first primary match up of the season, there’s a growing question of whether the former Secretary of State and assumed frontrunner may be about to do exactly that.

The CNN town hall comes as the race for the Democratic nomination shows Clinton and Sanders locked in a close battle for Iowa, while Sanders leads Clinton in New Hampshire, and Clinton is seen more favorably by Democrats in SC and in national polls.

Clinton still beats Sanders 52%-37% overall among Democrats, though Sanders’ gains have cut into her lead, Monmouth found. And she has considerable support among important primary voting blocs. This year, with the possibility that Sanders could win both Iowa and New Hampshire, Clinton is counting on South Carolina’s large African-American population to serve as a firewall.

While she’s neck-and-neck with Sanders in Iowa and Sanders is now way ahead in New Hampshire, the most recent poll out of SC has Clinton sitting a comfortable 36 points ahead.

Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton at the CNN Democratic Debate at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, Tuesday, October 13, 2015. She led by 33 points a month ago.

“While Senator Sanders tries to make a case on electability based on meaningless polls, Republicans and their super PACs have made clear the candidate they’re actually afraid to face”.

Privately, some Democrats have begun to acknowledge that Sanders could win both states. The poll includes interviews with a random sample of 927 adult residents of New Hampshire, including 420 who say they plan to vote in the Democratic presidential primary. “But it’s just a poll and we take nothing for granted”. 35% said they would be equally likely to beat Trump. But polling in general has been pretty rough recently.

Clinton attacked Sanders for his views on gun control in earlier debates; after it was revealed that he had voted for a bill exonerating owners of gun shops for selling firearms to customers that went on to commit violent acts. Clinton maintained that the limited number of debates and their scheduling was due to the Democratic National Committee working with broadcast networks that preferred airing debates on weekends so as not to bump weeknight prime-time programming.

Mattingly replied with his “I felt bad” line about the Clinton campaign staffers, and added that Sanders “fought her, kind of, to a standstill on this issue”.

In addition to that, black and Latino voters heavily favor Clinton. Murray points out that the same situation helped President Obama beat Clinton.

In choosing a candidate, most likely Democratic primary voters said jobs and the economy are top issues.