(JNi.media) Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has surged past the presumed party nominee Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, a new Franklin Pierce University/Boston Herald poll showed Wednesday.
Sanders is leading Clinton by 44-37 percent among the 442 New Hampshire likely Democratic primary voters, according to the live interview phone poll that was conducted Aug. 7-10 and has a plus/minus 4.7% margin of error.
Joe Biden, who is yet to declare, took 9%.
The key to this poll is in the details: while only 36% of Hillary’s supporters said she was “very favorable,” a whopping 54% said the same about Sanders.
Hillary’s combined unfavorable was 17%, compared with only 8% for Sanders.
This is the first time Clinton has trailed in the current primary run.
Only 35% of the likely primary voters said they are “excited” about Clinton, according to the poll, and a full 51% said they could support her, but aren’t enthusiastic about her.
However, in the nation-wide polls, candidate Clinton is still the runaway winner, averaging 55% of the total versus Sanders’ 19.4%.
Senator Sanders received his first substantial bump in the polls last April, when he climbed from being practically unknown to being favored by about 4% of potential voters. In that context, his rise from almost zero to 19% in three months should strike fear in the hearts of Hillary’s campaign people.