Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, seen here with husband Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea during a caucus night victory party on Monday, further gained on rival Bernie Sanders ahead of the New Hampshire primary, a new poll showed. Photo by Mike Theiler/UPI | License Photo

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton further gained on rival Bernie Sanders ahead of the New Hampshire primary, a tracking poll released Friday showed.

Clinton is up 4 percentage points, while Sanders is down 3 points, resulting in a net change of 7 points over results on Thursday, the UMass Lowell/7NEWS poll found. The former secretary of state now trails Sanders by 15 points, 55 percent to 40 percent. She trailed by 31 points at the beginning of the week.


The poll was conducted Tuesday through Thursday, after the Iowa caucuses but before Thursday night's Democratic debate.

"It is now quite clear that Clinton's win in Iowa has led to a sizeable bump," pollsters said. "The candidates engaged in a spirited debate on Thursday night and it remains to be seen if that may have any impact in the trajectory of the Democratic nomination contest in New Hampshire."

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Sanders continues to win among young voters, taking 89 percent support from the 18- to 29-year-old age group and 72 percent support from the age 30- to 39-age bracket.

The poll also found Republican front-runner Donald Trump leads among likely Republican primary voters by 19 points with 34 percent support, down 2 points since a similar poll on Thursday.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio remains unchanged at 15 percent and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz remains steady at 14 percent. Ohio Gov. John Kasich gained one point to reach 8 percent and is now tied with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who saw no change over Thursday. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie remained at 5 percent and both retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, 4 percent, and businesswoman Carly Fiorina, 3 percent, saw no change from Thursday.

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The poll, conducted on behalf of the University of Massachusetts Lowell, surveyed 434 likely Democratic primary voters and has a 5.24 percent margin of error.