--- title: Poll: Bernie Sanders Cuts Further Into Hillary Clinton Lead description: Bernie Sanders closed in on Hillary Clinton's lead after the first two voting contests of the year, according to a new national poll canonical: https://time.com/4230158/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-national-poll/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-19T00:53:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:29.570Z article:section: Politics og:title: Sanders Cuts Further Into Clinton's Lead in New National Poll og:description: Bernie Sanders closed in on Hillary Clinton's lead after the first two voting contests of the year, according to a new national poll og:url: https://time.com/4230158/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-national-poll/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01124e5d46031c57/69887e418e060160b1464ac4/sanders-clinton-debate-poll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: &lt;&gt; on February 11, 2016 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sanders Cuts Further Into Clinton's Lead in New National Poll twitter:description: Bernie Sanders closed in on Hillary Clinton's lead after the first two voting contests of the year, according to a new national poll twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01124e5d46031c57/69887e418e060160b1464ac4/sanders-clinton-debate-poll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bernie Sanders Cuts Further Into Hillary Clinton's Lead in New National Poll > 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.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Feb 19, 2016 12:53 AM UTC  Bernie Sanders (L) and Hillary Clinton participate in the PBS NewsHour Democratic presidential candidate debate at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Feb. 11 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Bernie Sanders (L) and Hillary Clinton participate in the PBS NewsHour Democratic presidential candidate debate at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Feb. 11 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.Win McNamee/ Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Feb 19, 2016 12:53 AM UTC Bernie Sanders [closed in on Hillary Clinton’s lead](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/bernie-sanders-cuts-hillary-clinton-s-national-lead-poll-n520926) after the first two voting contests of the year, according to a new national poll. The NBC News/_Wall Street Journal_ survey showed that Clinton still maintains a double-digit lead over the Vermont Senator, receiving support from 53% of Democratic primary voters. Sanders, who was 25 points behind Clinton last month, was backed by 42% of Democratic primary voters in the new poll. Clinton leads Sanders among minorities, women and primary voters over the age of 50\. Sanders leads Clinton among white men, independents and primary voters under the age of 50, according to the poll. Both candidates have been working to [court minority voters](http://time.com/4226723/bernie-sanders-black-voters-south-carolina/) as the South Carolina primary and Nevada caucuses approach. Nevada, which holds its Democratic caucuses on Saturday, has a [large Latino population](http://time.com/4228654/clinton-campaign-ad-nevada-caucuses/). The poll surveyed 400 Democratic primary voters between Feb. 14 and 16\. The margin of error was +/– 4.9 percentage points. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4230158/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-national-poll/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4230158/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-national-poll/"},"headline":"Bernie Sanders Cuts Further Into Hillary Clinton's Lead in New National Poll","datePublished":"2016-02-19T00:53:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:29.570Z","description":"Sanders has done well with voters in New Hampshire and Iowa","url":"https://time.com/4230158/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-national-poll/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01124e5d46031c57/69887e418e060160b1464ac4/sanders-clinton-debate-poll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01124e5d46031c57/69887e418e060160b1464ac4/sanders-clinton-debate-poll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"<> on February 11, 2016 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.","caption":"Bernie Sanders (L) and Hillary Clinton participate in the PBS NewsHour Democratic presidential candidate debate at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Feb. 11 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.","creditText":"Win McNamee/ 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/4230158/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-national-poll/","name":"Bernie Sanders Cuts Further Into Hillary Clinton's Lead in New National Poll"}}]}] ```