A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Bernie Sanders ahead of Hillary Clinton by six points nationwide, his biggest lead in the presidential race so far.

The survey, released Tuesday, shows Sanders polling at 41.7 percent among 998 likely Democratic voters, while Clinton got 35.5 percent.

As Salon points out, Reuters' daily tracking feature "illustrates that Sanders has led Clinton nationally for a majority of days in February."

The figures come just ahead of the Democratic primary in South Carolina on February 27, where Sanders is still trailing the former secretary of state. According to Bloomberg, the senator has 200 paid staffers on the ground in South Carolina, making it his biggest state operation thus far.

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As Salon's deputy politics editor Sophia Tesfaye writes:

Although the next Democratic showdown does not look promising for the Sanders campaign, the Vermont senator looks to blunt any sense of momentum Clinton may have after a win in both Nevada and South Carolina by picking off crucial Super Tuesday states. Sanders has been steadily gaining ground in Georgia and Texas, which award approximately 20 percent of total delegates between the two of them.

Reuters also found that Sanders would win in a landslide against GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, taking 43.6 percent to Trump's 30.4 percent, in a survey of 1,574 respondents.

On Sunday, speaking to a crowd of 5,200 in Greenville, S.C., Sanders said, "If you want a candidate who is going to defeat Donald Trump, you’re looking at him."

"There would be nothing that would give me greater pleasure than in fact beating Donald Trump," he said.