Clinton stays in front of Sanders in Iowa
Two days away from the Iowa caucuses, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is still holding onto the edge.
Clinton beats out rival Bernie Sanders in a Des Moines Register/Bloomberg poll of the Hawkeye State released Saturday evening.
{mosads}Clinton has 45 percent support, with Sanders at 42 percent.
Martin O’Malley comes in third place with 3 percent.
Just one-third of those polled are first-time caucus-goers, compared with 60 percent in 2008. It is widely believed that new voters carried Barack Obama to victory in Iowa in the primary.
The poll shows that Clinton has solidified a strong following in the Hawkeye State.
Over half of Clinton’s supporters, 53 percent, said they would be very enthusiastic to have her as the nominee, and 83 percent say they have made up their minds about who they will support.
And despite being younger than Sanders by 6 years, Clinton leads by a two-to-one ratio among elderly voters. She also leads him among female voters, 47 percent to 37 percent.
Still, Sanders wins the support of female voters under the age of 35 and support of young people overall, while Clinton leads among women over 35.
Sanders also has strong support among the “Obama coalition” — first-timers, unaffiliated voters and those under 45. The group makes up 55 percent of Democratic caucus-goers, and half of them support Sanders.
When asked which candidate cares more about people like them, 51 percent said Sanders, while 37 percent chose Clinton.
And two-thirds say that it would be alright to have a democratic socialist as president.
The poll is based on answers from 602 likely Democratic caucus-goers, who were surveyed between Jan. 26 and 29. It has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
– Updated at 7:25 p.m.
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