Sanders gaining ground on Clinton

Hillary Clinton is struggling to keep her edge over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the race for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, a new poll found.

{mosads}Clinton’s lead dropped 9 points since last month, according to a CNN/ORC survey released Wednesday. CNN found she now leads Sanders, 47 percent to 29 percent, among Democratic and Democratic-leaning Independent voters.

Clinton remains the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, it added, despite Sanders picking up 10 points since July.

Sanders’s favorability spiked in the new poll, with 38 percent of Democrats saying they are “extremely enthusiastic” about voting for him, compared to 50 percent for Clinton.

Clinton and Sanders command a sizable lead over the rest of the 2016 Democratic presidential field.

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley trails at 2 percent, while former Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) has 1 percent and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chaffee earns less than 1 percent, it added.

Vice President Biden takes third place in voter support with 14 percent, the latest CNN/ORC sampling found. Wednesday’s polling results follow rumors that Biden is seriously considering entering the 2016 presidential race.

It found that should he decide not to run, most of his supports would back Clinton over Sanders in the next election cycle. Clinton earns 56 percent of Biden’s potential supports should he pass on a White House run, CNN/ORC said.

Sanders, it added, nabs 33 percent in that scenario, while support for the other Democratic Oval Office bids remains unchanged.

Wednesday’s sampling found that most voters want Biden joining next year’s presidential contest, however. It said that 53 percent of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters want the vice president on ballots next year versus 45 percent who do not.

CNN/ORC conducted its latest survey from Aug. 13-16 among 358 of them Democratic or Democratic-leaning. The margin of error is 5 percent.