Clinton’s drop in polls has been so dramatic that she has lost one third of her supporters in the state since May, just a few short months ago.
A new Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll still shows the former first lady in the lead, but now with only 37% to Sanders’ 30%. Vice President Joe Biden was also included in the poll, walking away with 14% despite the fact that he has not even officially thrown his hat into the ring.
If Biden is removed from the poll, Clinton only takes 6 of his 14% of voters, leaving her still short of the majority at 43%.
While some might assume the former secretary of state’s decline in polls is due to the email scandal that has been making headlines, 61% of likely Democratic voters say that the email issue is not important to them.
Interestingly, nearly all of those who identified as supporting Sanders reported that they do so because they legitimately like him. Only 2% of his current supporters cited stopping a Clinton nomination as their reason for choosing the self-proclaimed Democratic socialist.
Sanders is also attracting more first-time primary voters than Clinton, claiming 43% of their votes compared to 31% for Clinton. He also leads by 23 percentage points with the under-45 crowd, and by 21 points among independent voters.
