Sanders surges

Poll: Sanders surges past Clinton in New Hampshire

By Eliza Collins

Bernie Sanders has pulled ahead of Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, and now boasts a 16 point lead, according to a new poll out Thursday.

Sanders leads the Democratic field of likely Democratic primary voters with 46 percent, according to a New Hampshire Primary CNN/WMUR poll, while Clinton comes in second with 30 percent, and 14 percent would support Joe Biden. The vice president has yet to decide if he’ll enter the race, but he still leads Martin O’Malley (2 percent) and Jim Webb (1 percent).

Clinton’s numbers have been steadily declining since their high point in January, while Sanders has been on a sharp increase. The last CNN/WMUR poll taken in July showed Clinton with a slight lead.

Voters also think Sanders is a lot more favorable than the other candidates. The Vermont senator has +41 percent favorability, Clinton comes in second with +17 percent, while Biden has +12 percent.

Clinton and Sanders are tied at 42 percent for who people think will take home the New Hampshire primary — Clinton decreased drastically and Sanders increased sharply from July to meet there.

New Hampshire voters — who often wait until closer to the primary to select their candidate — are still finicky about who they support though a larger number of Democratic primary voters have made up their mind than Republicans (25 percent compared to 13 percent of GOP). Twenty-eight percent are leaning towards a candidate but nearly half still have no clue who they’ll support.

The survey of 314 likely 2016 Democratic primary voters was taken Sept. 17-23. The margin of error for the poll that was taken over landlines and cellphones is plus or minus 5.5 percent.