--- title: Bernie Sanders Gains On Hillary Clinton's National Lead description: Since December, Clinton's lead has dropped to less than 20% among those likely to vote Democrat. canonical: https://time.com/4185640/sanders-gains-on-clinton-in-new-national-poll/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-19T21:07:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:15:24.604Z article:section: Politics og:title: Sanders Gains On Clinton in New National Poll og:description: Since December, Clinton's lead has dropped to less than 20%. og:url: https://time.com/4185640/sanders-gains-on-clinton-in-new-national-poll/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2dbbed8ae629be5/6988797d8e060138244642b8/gettyimages-505439450.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate In Charleston, South Carolina og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sanders Gains On Clinton in New National Poll twitter:description: Since December, Clinton's lead has dropped to less than 20%. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2dbbed8ae629be5/6988797d8e060138244642b8/gettyimages-505439450.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sanders Gains on Clinton in New National Poll by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 19, 2016 9:07 PM UTC  Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders chat following the Democratic Candidates Debate hosted by NBC News and YouTube on Jan. 17, 2016 in Charleston, South Carolina. T Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders chat following the Democratic Candidates Debate hosted by NBC News and YouTube on Jan. 17, 2016 in Charleston, South Carolina. TAndrew Burton—Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 19, 2016 9:07 PM UTC Bernie Sanders is gaining on Hillary Clinton nationally, but she maintains a large lead, according to [a recent poll](http://www.monmouth.edu/assets/0/32212254770/32212254991/32212254992/32212254994/32212254995/30064771087/4d7b2106-b632-4b79-a6ed-7afc73902d4c.pdf). A Monmouth University poll released Tuesday shows that Clinton’s lead over Sanders has dropped below 20 points. Clinton has the support of 52% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters across the country, while Sanders gets 37% support, which is up from 26% in December. Since then, Clinton’s support has dropped among almost all of the major groups of Democratic voters. Her numbers among liberals inverted, going from a 57%-31% margin of support over Sanders in December to a deficit of 42%-51%. Support among women for Clinton has also declined, dropping to a smaller advantage now of 54%-35% over Sanders. “With a shrinking margin, a strong showing by Sanders in Iowa and New Hampshire could cut Clinton’s national lead even more. However, he would still have to overcome Clinton’s demographic advantage in the ensuing contests,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth poll. “Sanders is aided by the fact that most Super Tuesday contests are open to independent voters – a group where he performs well. On the other hand, about two-thirds of the pledged delegates awarded on March 1 will be from states where black and Latino voters comprise anywhere from one-third to a majority of the electorate. It looks like the demographic dynamic that hurt Clinton in 2008 may be what helps her in 2016.” Where Clinton still holds a considerable advantage is with voters over the age of 50 and minorities. Older voters substantially favored Clinton to Sanders by a margin of 64% to 24%. Clinton’s lead over Sanders with black and Latino voters remains solid and is growing, now standing at a 71%-21% margin, which is a 10 point increase for Clinton since December. The Monmouth University poll was conducted by telephone from Jan. 15-18 with 1003 participating adults. Some 352 registered voters who identified as Democrats or lean toward the Democratic Party were used here, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5.2%. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4185640/sanders-gains-on-clinton-in-new-national-poll/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4185640/sanders-gains-on-clinton-in-new-national-poll/"},"headline":"Sanders Gains on Clinton in New National Poll","datePublished":"2016-01-19T21:07:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:15:24.604Z","description":"Clinton's support among minorities and older voters are still an advantage","url":"https://time.com/4185640/sanders-gains-on-clinton-in-new-national-poll/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","Polls","Bernie Sanders"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2dbbed8ae629be5/6988797d8e060138244642b8/gettyimages-505439450.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2dbbed8ae629be5/6988797d8e060138244642b8/gettyimages-505439450.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate In Charleston, South Carolina","caption":"Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate In Charleston, South Carolina","creditText":"Andrew Burton—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"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/4185640/sanders-gains-on-clinton-in-new-national-poll/","name":"Sanders Gains on Clinton in New National Poll"}}]}] ```