Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in South Carolina has narrowed to 21 points, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Democratic-leaning firm Public Policy Polling.
The PPP poll showed support for Clinton in at 55 percent in the Palmetto State, compared to 34 percent for Sanders. The previous poll from PPP, conducted in November, showed a much wider lead for Clinton at 72 percent to Sanders’ 18 percent.
The poll reflects the tightening dynamic of the Democratic presidential race since a surge in support for Sanders began early in 2016. But it suggests that Clinton still retains a comfortable advantage in the state.
TPM’s PollTracker Average shows Clinton at 59.3 percent in the state, and Sanders at 33.5 percent.
The PPP poll surveyed 525 likely Democratic voters in South Carolina from Feb. 14-15, with a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points.
Did anyone really think that a polling lead like Clinton had in November wouldn’t "narrow?"When you start that high, you usually have nowhere to go but down.
of course it spins the headline pro Bernie. He was down 38 in a Saturday poll. Forget this site. I am out. Everyone enjoy your election year
Still down 21 points???
Hillary and Bernie split the white vote. The Dem Party consists of 40% white and 60% minority. Come on. Hillary is going to win SC.
His numbers with minorities is still pretty horrible…both in favorabilities and in actual support.
My prediction is that given that SC has an open primary, Sanders does better than expected, but still loses by hefty margin,and the MSM runs with…he did better than expected. And they continue that argument until it finally dawns on them that he is getting creamed in the delegate race.
Cutting Hillary’s lead 30 points since the last PPP poll is impressive. But that took from November to now. He only has a week and a half to gain the 22 additional points to win SC. Of course he beat the polling averages by about 8-9 points in New Hampshire, another open primary state. Still, he has a long way to go before he’s even in the range where that level of outperforming the polls would take him over the top. I suspect this is just too steep a hill to climb in the amount of time he has left before SC. About the only way I see that happening is if he pulls off a big win in Nevada, shattering the “minorities won’t support Bernie” theory. So:
If Hillary wins NV (even narrowly) and then goes on to win SC by double digits, I think the narrative will be that “the race is all but over.” The “weekend at Bernie’s” analogies (he’s dead but his buddies pretend he isn’t) will be flying fast and furious after that.
If Bernie wins NV (even narrowly) and loses SC by single digits (especially low single digits) I think the narrative will be “the race continues to be surprisingly tight.”
If Bernie not only wins Nevada, but somehow manages to win at least a narrow majority in South Carolina (which I really do not expect to happen), then the narrative becomes Bernie-mentum in a big way…and rightly so.