Bernie Sanders holds significant lead in New Hampshire

The charges came on a day of repeated barbs between the Clinton and Sanders camps and as a new poll in New Hampshire showed the Vermont senator’s lead widening in the nation’s first primary contest.

In Iowa, Sanders has almost closed the gap entirely on Clinton’s lead, according to the most recent Des Moines Register/Bloomberg poll, which found 42% of Democratic voters in Iowa support Clinton, compared to 40% who support Sanders.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who jumped to second place in the latest WMUR/CNN New Hampshire Primary Poll of Republican candidates, trails Sanders, 56 percent to 33 percent, with independents favoring Sanders, 56 percent to 24 percent.

The event is not on the existing Democratic debate schedule, but it will give Clinton a chance to address her rapidly declining poll numbers and try to win back some support from Sanders.

In polling averages provided by RealClearPolitics, Clinton maintains a 4-point lead, 46.8 to 42.8, with O’Malley at 5.2 percent. The poll included more than 900 randomly selected Granite State adults – 413 likely Republican primary voters and 420 likely Democratic primary voters.

In the last month, Clinton has deployed a legion of celebrities and family members to take her message to Granite State voters, according to ABC News. Other considerations include national security and foreign policy, health care, income inequality, the environment and climate change, and gun control, respectively.

Bernie Sanders has consistently led the polls in New Hampshire since September 2015. Twice as many said jobs and the economy were more important.

Sanders also has astonishingly high favorability ratings among those likely to vote in New Hampshire’s Democratic primary, and is broadly seen as the candidate with the “personal characteristics and qualities that you think a president should have”.

Sanders goes on to say that the entire Clinton campaign is in trouble and that is why Hillary is on the offensive.

Clinton started the 2016 campaign as the prohibitive favorite to win the Democrat’s nomination, someone whose ability to organize, fundraise and turnout voters all but guaranteed her the nomination.

Hillary Clinton announced her slate of ME backers in October.

The poll was conducted by University of New Hampshire Survey Center for CNN/WMUR and polled 972 New Hampshire adults by telephone.