Hillary Clinton surged past her closest presidential rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, in a new poll of likely New Hampshire Democratic primary voters.
The survey, released Wednesday and conducted by the MassINC Polling Group for WBUR, found Clinton leading the field in the first-in-the-nation primary state with 38% support among likely Democratic voters. That’s seven percentage points higher than the 31% the former secretary of state scored in the same poll last month, indicating — once again — Clinton’s strong showing at last week’s Democratic debate. National surveys conducted in the wake of the debate likewise showed Clinton with a big lead.
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Sanders dropped to second place in the WBUR poll with 34% support, down one percentage point since September. Vice President Joe Biden, meanwhile, fell five points in the past month, going from 14% to 9% support. Various news outlets, including NBC News, report Biden as being days or even hours away from making a decision about whether to enter the race.
Clinton faces a major test on Thursday, when she will testify before a House committee investigating the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. In one of her strongest moments of last week’s debate, Clinton called the committee “an arm” of the Republican National Committee.
The WBUR survey has a margin of error of +/- 4.9 percentage points.
Emma Margolin
Emma Margolin is a reporter at MSNBC.com.