She successfully stared down her chief Democratic rival and survived the House Select Committee on Benghazi. Now, it looks like Hillary Clinton is reclaiming her commanding lead against Bernie Sanders in key swing states.
A new Monmouth University poll of likely Iowa Democratic caucus-goers — the first of its kind since Joe Biden announced he wouldn’t run and Clinton testified on Benghazi — shows the former secretary of state rocketing to a 41-point lead against the socialist senator from Vermont. 65 percent of Iowa caucus-goers now peg Clinton as their clear favorite, compared to just 24 percent who back Sanders.
The two were tied in Iowa as recently as September 21, with the Clinton campaign mired in a convoluted e-mail scandal and plagued by rumors that Vice President Biden would enter the race. Five weeks later, those storm clouds appear to have broken, at least for now.
On the Keystone Pipeline, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and gun control, Clinton has shifted dramatically to the left in a bid to combat Sanders’s appeal with progressives. And it seems to be working — she leads Sanders by 23 points among voters who describe themselves as “very liberal.” And she maintains a dominant, 50-point lead among self-described moderates.
#share#Four-in-ten likely Iowa Democratic caucus-goers say they have already decided on the candidate they’ll support come February 1 — another sign that Clinton is rapidly locking up the first-in-the-nation caucus.
“We now have a two-person race, but one of those competitors has just pulled very far ahead,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.
#related#Sanders still maintains a slight lead against Clinton in New Hampshire, the second state to vote in the 2016 nominating season. But his advantage has dwindled dramatically from last month’s high, with the latest polling averages showing him ahead of the former secretary of state by just three points.
The two remaining Democratic candidates barely registered. Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley earned 5-percent support and Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig grabbed 1 percent.
The poll was conducted by telephone from October 22 to 25, reaching 400 Iowa voters likely to attend the Democratic caucuses next February. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
— Brendan Bordelon is a political reporter for National Review.