Bob Jordan

@BobJordanAPP

TRENTON – Hillary Clinton’s history of not doing well in Iowa is on display in a new Monmouth University poll that shows the Democratic nominee trailing Donald Trump by 8 points among Hawkeye State voters likely to participate in November’s presidential election.

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Clinton’s 2008 campaign began caving in when she lost the Iowa caucus to Barack Obama and she underperformed in the same contest in February, avoiding an upset against U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont by the narrowest of margins (Clinton won 49.8 of Iowa’s delegates to 49.6 for Sanders).

Though Iowa has gone for Republicans just once in the last seven presidential elections, Trump has built a 45-37 lead in percentage points over Clinton, according to the poll released Thursday. Trump’s lead was 2 points when Monmouth polled in July.

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Another 8 percent intend to vote for Libertarian Gary Johnson, 2 percent say they will support Green Party candidate Jill Stein, 2 percent say they will vote for another candidate, and 6 percent are undecided.

Pollster Patrick Murray said Trump and Clinton are basically tied among voters with a college degree while Trump leads (47 to 34 points) among those without a college education. In July, Clinton had a 12-point lead with college graduates.

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“Iowa is one of the few places where Trump has been able make inroads among voting blocs that generally support Clinton,” Murray said.

The poll was conducted over three days through Wednesday and has a margin of error of +4.9 percent.

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Bob Jordan bjordan@gannettnj.com