--- title: Poll: Sanders Gaining On Clinton, Has Edge Against GOP description: The two Democrats are playing a game of tug of war, while Republicans are in a three-way slugfest for the nomination. canonical: https://time.com/4227849/sanders-clinton-gop-national-poll/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-17T18:59:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:09:45.783Z article:section: Politics og:title: Poll: Sanders Gaining On Clinton, Has Edge Against GOP og:description: The two Democrats are playing a game of tug of war, while Republicans are in a three-way slugfest for the nomination. og:url: https://time.com/4227849/sanders-clinton-gop-national-poll/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1da0ea1c5cfe072/69887dc92dce01e0439e7d4b/sanders-clinton3.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: sanders-clinton og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Poll: Sanders Gaining On Clinton, Has Edge Against GOP twitter:description: The two Democrats are playing a game of tug of war, while Republicans are in a three-way slugfest for the nomination. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1da0ea1c5cfe072/69887dc92dce01e0439e7d4b/sanders-clinton3.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sanders Fares Better Against Republicans Than Clinton, Poll Finds by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Feb 17, 2016 6:59 PM UTC  Bernie Sanders in Denver, CO on Feb. 13, 2016 (L); Hillary Clinton in Denver, CO on Feb. 13, 2016. Bernie Sanders in Denver, CO on Feb. 13, 2016 (L); Hillary Clinton in Denver, CO on Feb. 13, 2016.Marc Piscotty—Getty Images (L); Brennan Linsley—AP by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Feb 17, 2016 6:59 PM UTC Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has [become a bigger threat](http://www.suffolk.edu/academics/10741.php) to front runner Hillary Clinton’s chances of being the Democratic nominee, according to a survey released Wednesday of likely national voters. Sanders does better than Clinton in head-to-head matchups with Republican presidential candidates in a _USA Today_/Suffolk University survey of likely voters. The [self-proclaimed Democratic socialist](http://time.com/4113480/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-says-this-republican-president-was-more-of-a-socialist-than-him/) is also within 10 points of Clinton’s lead nationally — 50% to 40% — though the poll’s margin of error was +/- 5.5%. Among Republicans, Donald Trump continues to lead, with 35% of those surveyed saying he was their choice for the nomination. Behind him is [a battle for second place](http://time.com/4227499/ted-cruz-marco-rubio-south-carolina-campaign/) between Senator Ted Cruz (20%) and Senator Marco Rubio (17%), making it a three-man race for the nomination. When asked who their second choice would be, those surveyed picked Rubio over any other candidate. The other Republicans — Ohio Governor John Kasich (7%), former Florida governor Jeb Bush (6%) and Ben Carson (4%) — all trailed in the single digits. Both parties enter early voting contests on Saturday, with Republicans in the [South Carolina primary](http://time.com/4226723/bernie-sanders-black-voters-south-carolina/) and Democrats in the Nevada caucus — both states with more pronounced minority populations than Iowa or New Hampshire. Clinton and Sanders were close among Hispanic voters, polling at 51% and 43%, respectively — [which could be important heading into the Latino stronghold of Nevada](http://time.com/4227411/nevada-poll-clinton-sanders-dead-heat/). The survey was conducted over the phone with 1,000 likely voters from across the country between Feb. 11 and 15. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4227849/sanders-clinton-gop-national-poll/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4227849/sanders-clinton-gop-national-poll/"},"headline":"Sanders Fares Better Against Republicans Than Clinton, Poll Finds","datePublished":"2016-02-17T18:59:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:09:45.783Z","description":"The Republican race is a three-way fight","url":"https://time.com/4227849/sanders-clinton-gop-national-poll/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic","Polls"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1da0ea1c5cfe072/69887dc92dce01e0439e7d4b/sanders-clinton3.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/bltf1da0ea1c5cfe072/69887dc92dce01e0439e7d4b/sanders-clinton3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"sanders-clinton","caption":"Bernie Sanders in Denver, CO on Feb. 13, 2016 (L); Hillary Clinton in Denver, CO on Feb. 13, 2016.","creditText":"Marc Piscotty—Getty Images (L); Brennan Linsley—AP","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/4227849/sanders-clinton-gop-national-poll/","name":"Sanders Fares Better Against Republicans Than Clinton, Poll Finds"}}]}] ```