--- title: Hillary Clinton Leads Sanders Nationally By 25 Points: Poll description: Hillary Clinton is leading Bernie Sanders in a new national poll ahead of the final Democratic debate before the Iowa caucuses canonical: https://time.com/4183753/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-poll-3/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-17T15:44:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:42:15.283Z article:section: Politics og:title: Poll: Hillary Clinton Leads Bernie Sanders Nationally By 25 Points og:description: An earlier national poll found Clinton ahead by only seven points og:url: https://time.com/4183753/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-poll-3/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Poll: Hillary Clinton Leads Bernie Sanders Nationally By 25 Points twitter:description: An earlier national poll found Clinton ahead by only seven points twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Poll: Hillary Clinton Leads Bernie Sanders Nationally By 25 Points > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: What Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Need to Win the Democratic Race [Watch (HLS stream): What Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Need to Win the Democratic Race](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/88kr3X41.m3u8) (4:50)  _Published 2016-01-16. In early voting states like New Hampshire, the hard work of winning elections is often decided by volunteers on the ground._  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Jan 17, 2016 3:44 PM UTC  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Jan 17, 2016 3:44 PM UTC Hillary Clinton is leading Bernie Sanders in a [new national poll](http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/poll-clinton-holds-25-point-national-lead-over-sanders-n498071?cw=sm%5Ftw&hootPostID=c4a9748ae08d9e8fc17e57a1ac39e1c5) ahead of Sunday’s final Democratic debate before the Iowa caucuses. The former Secretary of State is beating Sanders by 25 points nationally, according to according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street _Journal_ poll of likely Democratic primary voters. Clinton is the top pick among 59% of Democratic primary voters, while Sanders has the support of 34%, the survey shows. Third-place candidate Martin O’Malley got the support of just 2% of likely voters. Clinton, Sanders and O’Malley will duke it out in Charleston on Sunday night during the [fourth and final debate](http://time.com/4183625/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders/) before the first contests of the Democratic primary. The latest poll results differ from a [New York _Times_/CBS survey](http://time.com/4178322/hillary-clinton-poll-national/), which found Clinton’s advantage slipping with a slim seven-point lead. The NBC News/WSJ poll was conducted Jan. 9-13 and included 400 likely Democratic primary voters. The margin of error is plus-minus 4.9 percentage points. \[[_NBC_](http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/poll-clinton-holds-25-point-national-lead-over-sanders-n498071?cw=sm%5Ftw&hootPostID=c4a9748ae08d9e8fc17e57a1ac39e1c5)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4183753/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-poll-3/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4183753/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-poll-3/"},"headline":"Poll: Hillary Clinton Leads Bernie Sanders Nationally By 25 Points","datePublished":"2016-01-17T15:44:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:42:15.283Z","description":"An earlier national poll found Clinton ahead by only seven points","url":"https://time.com/4183753/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-poll-3/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4183753/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-poll-3/","name":"Poll: Hillary Clinton Leads Bernie Sanders Nationally By 25 Points"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"What Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Need to Win the Democratic Race","description":"In early voting states like New Hampshire, the hard work of winning elections is often decided by volunteers on the ground.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/88kr3X41/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-01-16T21:45:47.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/88kr3X41.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4183753/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-poll-3/","duration":"PT4M50S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4183753/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-poll-3/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```