Poll: Hillary Clinton hits 50% support

Hillary Clinton continues to dominate the now smaller Democratic field of presidential candidates in the first NBC News online poll conducted by SurveyMonkey taken after Vice President Joe Biden officially declared himself out of the 2016 race. With former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee also suspending their campaigns, the poll shows that while Clinton has reinforced her lead to 20 points. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders remains a force to consider, with strong support from younger voters and those dissatisfied or angry with the government.

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With Biden no longer being asked about, Clinton’s numbers have inched higher, pushing her back to the 50% mark among voters who are Democratic or lean Democratic, for the first time since we began polling on the primary race back in April. But Sanders continues to hold onto a solid segment of the Democratic electorate, getting the backing of 30% of leaned Democratic voters. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and Harvard professor Larry Lessig, with just 1% support, have not been able to make a dent in their levels of support.

The tables below show that the last two weeks have been good ones for Clinton. Following the Biden announcement and her marathon 11-hour session before the House committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attacks, Clinton is maintaining or building her coalition across a wide swath of voting blocs: Men, women, whites, blacks and older voters.

But Sanders inspires younger voters and those that are angry with Washington – a key demographic in an election year where voters are embracing candidates who are considered outsiders. Among all Democratic leaned voters, less than 1 in 4 are satisfied (23%) or enthusiastic (1%) about how the federal government is working. A full 50% are dissatisfied and another 25% express anger. Among these angry voters, Sanders bests Clinton, 43% to 38%. 

Stephanie Psyllos, Hannah Hartig, and Josh Clinton contributed reporting.

The NBC News Online Poll was conducted online by SurveyMonkey from October 27-29, 2015 among a national sample of 8,706 adults aged 18 and over. Respondents for this non-probability survey were selected from the nearly three million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day. Results have an error estimate of plus or minus 1.5 percentage points. A full description of our methodology and the poll can be found here.

The poll was produced by the Data Analytics Lab of NBC News in conjunction with Penn’s Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies with data collection and tabulation conducted by SurveyMonkey.