Sanders, Clinton tied in national poll

by Jesse Byrnes - 03/24/16 8:16 AM ET

Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are statistically tied nationally, according to a new poll released Thursday morning.

Among those who have voted or plan to vote in a Democratic contest this year, Sanders has 49 percent support to Clinton’s 48 percent, a Bloomberg Politics poll found.

{mosads}It’s just the second national poll of the cycle finding Sanders ahead of Clinton, along with a Fox News poll in February that had him up by 3 points. Clinton has led several recent polls by double digits.

Clinton has won 1,223 pledged delegates, along with the support of 467 superdelegates, according to the Associated Press delegate tracker. Sanders has 946 delegates and 26 superdelegates.

But hundreds of superdelegates have not yet picked a side, and those that have are free to switch at any point before the official convention vote.

Sanders also does better in head-to-head match ups against the Republican presidential candidates, although both Democrats have strong numbers.

Sanders leads GOP front-runner Donald Trump by 24 points, compared to Clinton’s 18-point edge. And the Vermont senator leads Ted Cruz by 12 points, while Clinton leads him by 9 points.

Clinton trails John Kasich by 4 points in a head-to-head matchup. Sanders leads the Ohio governor by 4 points.

Clinton, a former secretary of State, may benefit from a shift in focus to terrorism following the attacks in Brussels on Tuesday, the poll found.

She holds a 3-to-1 lead over Sanders as the candidate Democrats believe can best handle Islamic terrorism.

The survey of 311 Democratic primary voters has a margin of error of 5.6 percent, while the margin of error for the 815 likely general-election voter is 3.4 percent. The poll was conducted March 19–22.

Tags Bernie Sanders Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Ted Cruz