Clinton leads Sanders 44 percent to 42 percent, well within the margin of error of the poll, which was conducted after the Iowa caucuses. | AP Photo National poll: Sanders zooms into virtual tie with Clinton Quinnipiac poll is a major shift from December, when Clinton held 31 point lead.

The Democratic race has dramatically tightened, according to a new Quinnipiac University national poll out Friday that shows Hillary Clinton with a razor-thin lead over Bernie Sanders.

Clinton leads Sanders 44 percent to 42 percent, well within the margin of error of the poll, which was conducted after the Iowa caucuses.


Monday’s contest in Iowa ended in a virtual tie, though the election was officially called for the former secretary of state.

The picture of a neck-and-neck race is a huge change from Quinnipiac’s last national poll conducted Dec. 16-20 that showed Clinton with a massive lead over Sanders, 61 percent to 30 percent. It’s not clear yet whether other post-Iowa polls will also show Sanders surging ahead and catching up to Clinton.

On the GOP side, one in three Republicans are for Donald Trump, but Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio are catching up.

The survey finds Trump with 31 percent nationally, Cruz with 22 percent and Rubio with 19 percent. No other candidate polls in the double digits: Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has 6 percent, the rest are at or below 3 percent and 9 percent of those polled are still undecided.

And while one-third of Republicans surveyed support Trump, another 30 percent “would definitely not support” the businessman. Cruz comes in second in that category with 15 percent, and 7 percent would not support Rubio.

The telephone poll of 1,125 registered U.S. voters was conducted Feb. 2 – 4. Of the 507 Republicans sampled, there is a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points; the margin of error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points for the 484 Democrats surveyed.