Hillary Clinton received 48 percent, Bernie Sanders received 45 percent and Martin O'Malley took 3 percent. | AP Photo Clinton overtakes Sanders in N.H. poll

Hillary Clinton now holds a 3 percentage-point lead over Bernie Sanders among likely Democratic voters in the first primary state of New Hampshire, according to the results of a Monmouth University poll released Tuesday.

The former secretary of state jumped 7 points from the September poll, to 48 percent, while Sanders dropped 4 points, to 45 percent. (Those figures redistributed support from erstwhile candidates Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb, and Vice President Joe Biden, who declined to enter the race.)


Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley took just 3 percent, and Harvard Law professor Larry Lessig, who announced Monday that he was ending his campaign, earned 1 percent.

A little more than three months ahead of the first-in-the-nation primary, just 3 percent said they were undecided among the candidates.

A little more than one-third of those who participated in the survey — 35 percent — said they are completely decided on their choice, while 38 percent said they have a strong preference but are willing to consider other candidates in the mix. Among Clinton voters, 39 percent said they are completely decided and 37 percent said they strongly prefer their candidate but are willing to consider another, compared with 34 percent of Sanders voters who said they are totally committed and 43 percent who indicated a strong commitment but also left the door open to considering an alternative.

Sanders holds a slightly higher net favorability rating — 86 percent to 8 percent — than Clinton — 79 percent to 15 percent — with both candidates experiencing slight increases since the September Monmouth survey.

The poll was conducted Oct. 25-29, surveying 403 New Hampshire voters drawn from a list of registered Democratic and independent voters who voted in a primary election in either of the previous two cycles or who voted in the past two general elections in 2012 and 2014 and said they are likely to vote in the Democratic primary in February.

The margin of error is plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.