It’s a tie ball game in the Democratic primary, according to a new national survey of registered voters.
The poll from Quinnipiac University shows former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with 44 percent of the vote and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders with 42. The thin, two-point margin, which is inside the poll’s margin of error, is a massive change from late December. At that time, Quinnipiac had Clinton ahead 61 to 30.
“Democrats nationwide are feeling the Bern,” Tim Malloy, assistant director of the poll, said in a release.
Quinnipiac’s numbers also show that Clinton’s criticism of Sanders’s electability might be more applicable to her own candidacy at the moment. Whereas Clinton ties Sen. Ted Cruz and trails Sen. Marco Rubio by seven points, Sanders edges Cruz by four points and ties Rubio. Both Democrats lead Donald Trump with totals outside the poll’s margin of error.
Part of Clinton’s struggles and Sanders’s success goes to their relative popularity among voters. Clinton is underwater — she has a negative 39 to 56 percent favorability rating. Sanders, on the other hand, has a positive 44 to 35 percent rating.
Rubio has the largest margin between favorable and unfavorable opinions of him. 42 percent view him positively, and only 28 percent view him negatively.
“While Trump, Clinton and Cruz wallow in a negative favorability swamp, by comparison, Rubio and Sanders are rock stars,” Malloy said.
Quinnipiac’s survey is the second nationwide poll of Democrats performed in its entirety after the Iowa caucuses. The other, a poll of “usual” primary voters from Public Policy Polling, showed Clinton ahead nationally by 21 percentage points — much more in line with what most surveys have revealed throughout the primary. PPP’s poll ran from Tuesday to Wednesday this week, whereas Quinnipiac’s ran from Tuesday to Thursday.
Check out the remainder of the Q-poll results here.
