Poll: Sanders down by just 8 points in New Hampshire

Hillary Clinton’s once vast advantage over independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has shrunk to single digits in New Hampshire, according to the latest CNN/WMUR Granite State Poll released Thursday evening.

Among likely Democratic primary voters in the state, 43 percent said they would vote for Clinton, with 35 percent going for Sanders.


Vice President Joe Biden, who has not indicated that he will run, follows with 8 percent, with 2 percent or fewer backing former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee, the former senator and governor of Rhode Island.

In the same poll conducted last month — which notably included Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (who is not running) — Clinton drew 51 percent, with Warren grabbing 20 percent and Sanders at just 13 percent.

Sanders holds a strong lead over Clinton in terms of empathy, with 45 percent saying he is the candidate who cares the most about people like you. Just 24 percent picked the former secretary of state and first lady when asked that question.

Clinton appears to be more trusted on domestic and foreign policy issues, though when asked about “big banks and corporations,” 36 percent trust Sanders, while 31 percent back Clinton.

Asked who “best represents the values of Democrats like yourself,” 41 percent picked Sanders, with just 30 percent going for Clinton, who led the answer to this question in May, when 38 percent chose her, 22 percent picked Warren and just 13 percent looked to the Vermont senator.

On the GOP side, the poll has Jeb Bush in first and Donald Trump in second.

Among likely New Hampshire Republican primary voters, 16 percent said they would back the former Florida governor, while 11 percent threw their weight behind Trump.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul grabbed 9 percent, followed by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker at 8 percent, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former HP executive Carly Fiorina at 6 percent, and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 5 percent.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry followed with 4 percent, with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 3 percent and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 2 percent. Tied at 1 percent each were Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former New York Gov. George Pataki and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Rubio leads the field in terms of net favorability, at plus-28 percent percentage points. By comparison, Bush’s net favorability is at plus-17 percentage points, while Trump’s is in the red, at negative-10 percentage points. That’s a bounce for Trump from the same poll conducted in February, however, when his net favorability was negative-50 percentage points.

Trump also came in second this week in a Suffolk University poll of New Hampshire Republicans and in a national Fox News poll of likely GOP primary voters.

The CNN/WMUR poll was conducted June 18-24 via telephone, surveying 1,010 adults in the state with an overall margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.1 percentage points. The Republican sample of 402 likely primary voters carries a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4.9 percentage points, and the Democratic sample of 360 likely primary voters carries a margin of error of plus-or-minus 5.2 percentage points.