--- title: Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton Close in California Poll description: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are in a tight race to win next month's California primary canonical: https://time.com/4349261/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-california-primary-poll/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-26T15:16:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:52:05.076Z article:section: Politics og:title: Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in California Dead Heat og:description: They're virtually tied in the state og:url: https://time.com/4349261/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-california-primary-poll/ 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: Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in California Dead Heat twitter:description: They're virtually tied in the state twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in California Dead Heat by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff May 26, 2016 3:16 PM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff May 26, 2016 3:16 PM UTC [Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders](http://time.com/bernie-sanders-2016-campaign/?xid=homepage) and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are in a tight race to win next month’s California primary, according to a new poll that shows them in a virtual tie. The survey, conducted by the [Public Policy Institute of California](http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/survey/S%5F516MBS.pdf), found that 46% of likely Democratic primary voters support Clinton, compared to 44% for Sanders. That’s inside the poll’s margin of error. California’s June 7 vote is the next and final big contest in the Democratic primary, and with 475 delegates at stake, Sanders and Clinton are both campaigning in the state. Clinton is all-but assured the nomination due to her more-than 270-delegate lead. But Sanders is hoping to win as many delegates as possible in order to change the Democratic Party’s agenda, as he explained for [TIME’s cover story this week](http://time.com/bernie-sanders-2016-campaign/?xid=homepage). If he can win in California, Sanders said he can have greater leverage at the Democratic Party’s convention in July. “Right now whether I win or lose, what I want to see is a transformation of the Democratic Party into a grassroots movement which is designed to represent the needs of working people, low-income people, young people, elderly people, rather than having such an extraordinary emphasis on wealthy campaign contributors,” Sanders told TIME in an extended [interview on Sunday in San Diego](http://time.com/4348664/bernie-sanders-time-interview-democratic-party-hillary-clinton/?xid=homepage). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4349261/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-california-primary-poll/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4349261/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-california-primary-poll/"},"headline":"Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in California Dead Heat","datePublished":"2016-05-26T15:16:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:52:05.076Z","description":"They're virtually tied in the state","url":"https://time.com/4349261/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-california-primary-poll/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","Bernie Sanders"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"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/4349261/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-california-primary-poll/","name":"Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in California Dead Heat"}}]}] ```