--- title: Bernie Sanders Overtakes Hillary Clinton in Iowa Caucus Race description: He has a five-point lead in the early voting state. canonical: https://time.com/4177441/bernie-sanders-iowa-poll-january/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-12T18:32:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:56:32.445Z article:section: Politics og:title: Bernie Sanders overtakes Hillary Clinton in Iowa Caucus Race og:description: He has a five-point lead in the early voting state. og:url: https://time.com/4177441/bernie-sanders-iowa-poll-january/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b19e2aa5cfab1db/698878c95f570f217ab1f27f/bernie-sanders5.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders speaks during a campaign event at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bernie Sanders overtakes Hillary Clinton in Iowa Caucus Race twitter:description: He has a five-point lead in the early voting state. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b19e2aa5cfab1db/698878c95f570f217ab1f27f/bernie-sanders5.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sanders Overtakes Clinton in Iowa Poll ## Video: The Third Democratic Debate, In Under Two Minutes [Watch (HLS stream): The Third Democratic Debate, In Under Two Minutes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/lTPNqlFm.m3u8) (1:54)  _Published 2015-12-20. Here are the highlights from the final Democratic debate of 2015._ by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 12, 2016 6:32 PM UTC  Bernie Sanders listens to a question from the audience during a campaign event at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa on Jan. 8, 2016 Bernie Sanders listens to a question from the audience during a campaign event at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa on Jan. 8, 2016Scott Morgan—Reuters by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 12, 2016 6:32 PM UTC Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders overtook former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an Iowa poll Tuesday. According to a survey of likely caucus-goers by Quinnipiac University, 49% back Sanders, 44% are in favor of Clinton and 4% back former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley. This is the end of a months-long lead for Clinton in Iowa, the first state in the nominating process for the presidency. Clinton led Sanders by 11 percentage points in the last Quinnipiac poll, which was released in mid-December. “After three months of Secretary Hillary Clinton holding an average 10-point lead among Iowa Democrats, the playing field has changed,” said Peter A. Brown assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll in a statement. “The Democratic race is different than the GOP contest because it lacks a divisive tone. Iowa Democrats like both major candidates personally; they just like Senator Sanders more.” A divide among Iowa voters highlights a growing gender gap between the candidates: Men back Sanders 61% to Clinton’s 30%, while women back Clinton 55% to Sander’s 39%. But there was some good news for Clinton, who has made electability a key part of her campaign argument. **Read More:** [_Clinton Makes Risky Bet on Electability in New Hampshire_](http://time.com/4174587/hillary-clinton-new-hampshire-electability/) Some 85% of likely caucus-goers believe that Clinton can win the November general election, while only 68% think the same of Sanders. The survey was conducted Jan. 5-10 by polling 492 likely Iowa caucus participants with a margin of error of +/- 4.4%. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4177441/bernie-sanders-iowa-poll-january/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4177441/bernie-sanders-iowa-poll-january/"},"headline":"Sanders Overtakes Clinton in Iowa Poll","datePublished":"2016-01-12T18:32:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:56:32.445Z","description":"Sanders has a five-point lead on Clinton in the early voting state.","url":"https://time.com/4177441/bernie-sanders-iowa-poll-january/","keywords":["Bernie Sanders","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","Polls","Iowa","Polling","Martin O'malley"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b19e2aa5cfab1db/698878c95f570f217ab1f27f/bernie-sanders5.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/blt6b19e2aa5cfab1db/698878c95f570f217ab1f27f/bernie-sanders5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders speaks during a campaign event at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa","caption":"Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders speaks during a campaign event at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa","creditText":"Scott Morgan—Reuters","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/bernie-sanders/","name":"Bernie Sanders"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4177441/bernie-sanders-iowa-poll-january/","name":"Sanders Overtakes Clinton in Iowa Poll"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Third Democratic Debate, In Under Two Minutes","description":"Here are the highlights from the final Democratic debate of 2015.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/lTPNqlFm/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-12-20T05:14:20.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/lTPNqlFm.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4177441/bernie-sanders-iowa-poll-january/","duration":"PT1M54S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4177441/bernie-sanders-iowa-poll-january/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```