Bernie Sanders entered the race to the nomination for the candidacy with the momentum of a bullet train. However, Clinton seems to now have taken a wider margin in the lead.
According to a poll by CNN , Hillary Clinton has 42 percent of the vote, gaining even more of a lead over Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. In the poll, Bernie Sanders garnered 24 percent of the vote, and Vice President Joe Biden, who has yet to announce that he is even running, has 22 percent of the vote.
In the last poll taken by CNN in early September, Bernie Sanders was only ten points behind Clinton. Clinton had 37 percent and Sanders had 27 percent, with Biden polling at 20 percent. That is not even as bad as it could be for Bernie Sanders, as Clinton’s support is divided between her and Joe Biden. Without Biden in the race, Clinton takes a 2-to-1 lead over Sanders as her numbers would jump by 15 points, and the number for Sanders only go up by 4.
Clinton’s lead in Democratic race grows, CNN/ORC poll shows. If Biden stays out of race, her numbers would rise more. http://t.co/3SO5rPyuG2
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) September 21, 2015
Whether or not Biden will run is in question. Joe Biden is considering a run, but might not with the recent death of his son, Beau.
Clinton has never been lower than Bernie Sanders in national polls, but in two key voting states, New Hampshire and Iowa, Sanders has held the lead against Clinton. Clinton, as reported by the Boston Herald , is now visiting New Hampshire to correct the difference between her and Bernie Sanders in that state.
The Washington Post reports Bernie Sanders has fallen into a pattern where this may be a continuing issue for him. On Sanders’ tour of the country, he will visit a state and drum up support, which drops and then flatlines when he leaves. This has been attributed to the fact that Bernie Sanders polls well with white liberals, while Clinton seems to be getting the important vote of non-White Democrats, likely due to Sanders’ inability to recover from his run-ins with the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
There may be hope for Bernie Sanders yet, however. According to H.A. Goodman at the Huffington Post , Sanders may gain some ground in South Carolina amongst non-White voters. The Sanders campaign will likely rely on the fact that last time Clinton ran for president, her campaign suffered a hiccup in South Carolina when Bill Clinton compared Barack Obama’s surge in the polls there to Jesse Jackson’s win in the state in 1988. Also, despite his issues with current activists, Bernie Sanders has a better record when it comes to race relations. #BlackLivesMatter in Boston has called Hilary Clinton’s record “Abyssmal.”
[Image by Scott Eisen / Getty Images]