Slightly more than half—52 percent—said they backed Hillary Clinton, while 37 percent opted for Sanders. Poll: Clinton has a better shot at beating Trump than Sanders

Hillary Clinton would have a better shot at beating Donald Trump in the general election than would Bernie Sanders, according to the results of the latest national Monmouth University poll released Tuesday surveying Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters.

Sanders has cut into Clinton's advantage among nearly every voting bloc over the last month, but the former secretary of state still leads by double digits, albeit with an advantage less than half of a month ago.


Slightly more than half—52 percent—said they backed Clinton, while 37 percent opted for Sanders, the first time that her advantage has been less than 20 points. In the university's December survey, Clinton held a substantially larger 33-point advantage over Sanders—59 percent to 26 percent. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley polled well within the margin of error, at 2 percent.

Asked who would have a better shot against Trump, 44 percent said Clinton would, while only 16 percent said the Vermont senator would have more of a chance. Meanwhile, 35 percent said they would have about an equal opportunity. In the case of Ted Cruz, 39 percent said Clinton would do better, compared to 17 percent for Sanders and 37 percent for both. Asked who would do better against Marco Rubio, 39 percent said Clinton would, 37 percent said they would have an equal shot and just 17 percent said Sanders would.

Sanders and his campaign have frequently pointed to past polls showing them performing better against Trump than Clinton to emphasize the point of electability. In contrast to the question posed in this poll, those questions have typically presented respondents with head-to-head matchups (for example, Sanders vs. Trump, Clinton vs. Trump) rather than asking which candidate would have a better shot at beating a given candidate.

Clinton took her biggest hit among those describing themselves as liberal. In December, 57 percent in that group backed her, compared to 31 percent for Sanders. This time, the self-described democratic socialist leads by 9 points—51 percent to 42 percent.

In the coveted 18-to-49 demographic, Sanders leads Clinton by 13 points (52 percent to 39 percent) after trailing by 17 points in December. Clinton has, however, held onto her advantage among voters over the age of 50 (64 percent to 24 percent), as well as among blacks and Latinos (71 percent to 21 percent).

Voters indicated that they believed Clinton would do a better job than Sanders on issues related to gun control (39 percent to 21 percent) and health care (36 percent to 30 percent). But when it came to "dealing with Wall Street" and "reducing the gap between the rich and poor," Sanders led Clinton by double digits on both counts.

The poll was conducted Jan. 15-18 via landlines and cellphones, surveying 352 registered voters who identified as Democrats or leaning toward the Democratic Party. The margin of error is plus or minus 5.2 percentage points.

