Hillary Clinton has held on to a firm lead over Bernie Sanders in Iowa, according to a new poll that shows her outpacing the Democratic primary field in the first-in-the-nation caucus state.
A majority of likely Democratic caucus participants, or 51%, say they back Clinton, while 42% support the Vermont Senator, the Quinnipiac poll published on Wednesday shows. Those numbers are virtually unchanged compared to the same poll results a month ago, which showed a 51-40 split favoring Clinton.
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who has struggled to break out of the low single digits during the campaign, registers at 4% despite months of dedicated campaigning in Iowa.
Clinton does best among Democratic caucus-goers who are looking for a strong leader, while Sanders has the most support among voters who want a candidate that cares about their needs.
Sanders is the best candidate to handle the economy, 47 percent of Democrats say, while 42 percent say Clinton is best on this issue. Some 77% said Clinton was best equipped to handle foreign policy.
More than a third of like caucus-goers said they were willing to change their mind. The margin of error in the poll is 4.2 percentage points.