Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders continues to hold a wide lead over Hillary Clinton among likely New Hampshire primary voters, according to a new CNN/WMUR tracking poll conducted entirely after the Iowa caucuses.
Sanders stands at 61% support, up slightly from the 57% he held in a late January CNN/WMUR poll conducted before he and Clinton divided Iowa caucusgoers almost evenly on Monday night. Clinton holds 30%, down a tick from the 34% she held before the caucuses. Both changes are within the poll’s margin of sampling error.
The results reflect interviews conducted during the first two and a half days of a tracking poll that will ultimately wrap together three nights worth of interviews, but give the first look at how the race is shaping up following Monday night’s caucuses in Iowa.
The Vermont senator is also widely expected to win the primary set to be held on February 9 in New Hampshire, with 61% of likely voters saying they think he’ll win, while 25% expect a Clinton victory. Clinton won the state’s primary during her bid for the 2008 Democratic nomination after polls ahead of the contest showed her trailing then-Senator Barack Obama.
Likely Democratic voters are far more likely than Republicans in the state to say they’ve made up their minds about the race, with 64% saying their choice is locked in, while just 41% who say so on the GOP side. Just 17% of likely Democratic voters say they are still trying to decide.
Those who plan to participate in the Democratic primary are also more open to both of their party’s remaining candidates than Republicans are to their party’s current front-runner, Donald Trump. Overall, just 19% of likely Democratic voters said they would never back Clinton, 8% would never back Sanders, and 52% say both candidates are OK. On the GOP side, 37% said they had ruled out Trump, and only 13% feel the entirety of the field is acceptable.
The CNN/WMUR poll was conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center by telephone from February 2-4. The poll includes interviews with a random sample of 556 adult residents of New Hampshire, including 228 who say they plan to vote in the Democratic presidential primary. For results among the sample of likely Democratic primary voters, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 6.5 percentage points.
