Hillary Clinton holds an edge over Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential race among likely Democratic caucusgoers, according to a new Iowa poll.
Clinton has 47% support compared to Sanders’ 42%, according to a Monmouth University survey released Thursday. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley comes in third with 6% support.
The results show the race in Iowa tightening from a similar survey a month ago, when Clinton garnered 55% support compared to Sanders’ 33%.
“Support for Sanders has come from those who are new to the process, but the current poll indicates he is also cutting into Clinton’s lead among die-hard Democratic partisans,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, in a statement accompanying the poll results.
About 55% of those surveyed said they have locked-in their candidate of choice, according to the poll, with 30% saying they have a strong preference but are willing to consider another candidate and 15% say they only have a slight preference or are undecided.
Both Clinton and Sanders have high favorability ratings, and voting for either candidate will leave most voters feeling either “enthusiastic” or “satisfied.”
Clinton has a slight lead with registered Democrats who say they only vote in November’s general election, according tot he poll. Meanwhile, Sanders has the edge with people who say they’ll change the registration to Democrat to vote during Monday’s primary election.
“Given the way Iowa’s Democratic caucuses work, Clinton could start the night with more supporters, but Sanders could win the delegate count,” Murray said.
The Monmouth University Poll surveyed 504 Iowa voters likely to attend the Democratic presidential caucuses via telephone between January 23-26 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
