Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has overtaken former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as frontrunner in the national Democratic primary, according to a Fox News poll released Thursday.



The Fox News poll showed Sanders beating Clinton by 47 percent to 44 percent. This indicates that the Vermont Senator has closed the 12-point gap separating them when the same poll was conducted in January, when Clinton led by 49 percent to 37 percent.

This is the first major poll to suggest that he has taken the lead over the longtime frontrunner who came into the 2016 cycle as the presumptive nominee. Sanders has enjoyed a surge in support that has lasted for at least a month, as he won the New Hampshire primary and narrowly lost to Clinton in Iowa.



No other polling has shown Sanders leading in nationwide support, and most has shown Clinton retaining a significant lead over Sanders, albeit a narrower one than she enjoyed a month ago. TPM’s PollTracker Average shows Clinton at 49 percent and Sanders at 42.1 percent.

The Fox News poll was carried out Feb. 15-17 by live telephone interview. Pollsters surveyed 429 respondents, with a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.