A new poll shows former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton holds a significant nationwide lead over Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders as Democrats get ready to head to the polls for primaries.
Once again it needs to be noted: a)polls are snapshots in time b)one poll does not a trend make because a trend comes from a combination of polls c)polls are not always right but they are not always wrong and the most certain truism d)partisans will generally dismiss or try to discredit polls (the most common technique is to go on about the bad metholodogy of polls that don’t favor their candidate) they don’t like then tout the ones they like. Given all of that, here’s the latest info:
With the first Democratic primary now less than a month away, Hillary Clinton holds a significant lead over Bernie Sanders, according to the latest NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking Poll for the week of December 28, 2015 through January 3, 2016. Clinton leads Sanders by a 17-point margin—53 to 36—with only 2% of registered Democrat and Democratic-leaning voters supporting Martin O’Malley. The poll was conducted online among a national sample of 3,700 adults aged 18 and over.
Sanders supporters are slightly less decided than Clinton supporters. More than half of voters who say they are supporting Clinton are absolutely certain they will vote for her in their state’s Democratic primary or caucus. Forty-four percent of Sanders supporters are absolutely certain they will vote for him heading into the primaries.
The poll finds that moderates are more likely to support Clinton, while those who consider themselves liberal or very liberal will like Sanders:
It also finds that Clinton and Sanders are tied for white voters, but Clinton leads in support from women and black voters:
The big question facing the Democrats — as well as the Republicans — is whether at the end of an increasingly emotional primary season the party can unite against the other party, or whether some members will decide to teach their party a lesson and stay home. Which would teach their party and themselves a lesson since as many in both parties note: the next President may have a chance to appoint as many as three Supreme Court judges.
Here’s The Huffington Post Pollster’s composite of polls on the Clinton Sanders race:
Top graphic via shutterstock.com
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.