NH Poll: Bernie Sanders Trails Hillary by Only 12 Points

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) trails Hillary Clinton by only 12 percentage points in New Hampshire in a new poll.

A Morning Consult poll found that “among voters who say they will participate in New Hampshire’s Democratic primary, 44 percent choose Clinton, while 32 percent pick Sanders, who hails from neighboring Vermont.” After kicking off her campaign on Saturday–two months after announcing her candidacy in a YouTube video–Clinton went to Iowa over the weekend and is in New Hampshire on Tuesday to talk about education and propose universal Pre-K.

In what was her most significant victory eight years ago, Clinton won the Granite State’s first-in-the-nation primary in 2008 after she finished third in the Iowa caucuses behind then-Senator Barack Obama and John Edwards. Though Obama carried New Hampshire twice, only 43% of voters in the poll approved of his job performance while 56% disapproved.

Clinton has commanding leads over her competitors in Iowa and South Carolina. In Iowa, Clinton received 54% of the vote while Sanders got 12%. In South Carolina, Clinton received 56% of the vote while Vice President Joe Biden received 15% and Sanders got 10%.

Sanders, who recently came within eight points of Clinton in a straw poll at the Wisconsin Democratic Party convention, has been actively courting Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) supporters while attacking Clinton for avoiding reporters and not taking a position on Obamatrade.

“Senator Warren is a good friend of mine and her views and mine are pretty close on most of the major issues, so we’ll be bringing in some of those people into our organization,” Sanders reportedly said during the weekend.

Perhaps sensing that Clinton’s support, even among her base, is not as strong as advertised, Clinton’s campaign has already been downplaying expectations, recently issuing a memo that stated no Democrat has received more than 50% of the vote in a contested New Hampshire primary in the last 25 years.

The Morning Consult poll, conducted May 31-June 8, has a margin of error of +/- six percent.