Poll: Support for Sanders rising in Iowa, NH

Sen. Bernie Sanders’s Democratic support is growing in Iowa and New Hampshire, according to a new poll, but the longshot presidential hopeful still trails Hillary Clinton by large margins in both early-nominating states.

{mosads}Fifty percent of likely Iowa caucus-goers chose Clinton, while 56 percent of likely New Hampshire primary voters backed her. Sanders (I-Vt.) won 24 percent of the vote in each state, Bloomberg found.

Sanders has gained 6 percentage points in New Hampshire and 8 percent in Iowa since the last Bloomberg poll in May.

His favorability rating among Iowa Democrats has also grown 10 percentage points over the past month to 57 percent, while his unfavorable rating was cut in half, to 4 percent.

While Clinton lost ground on Sanders, her favorability rating with Iowa Democratic voters grew 2 percentage points, to 88 percent. Her favorability among New Hampshire Democratic voters held strong at 88 percent.

The margin between the Democratic favorite and the Vermont senator is much steeper than other recent polls that showed Sanders within 12 percent of Clinton. But the gains typify the momentum that the Sanders camp is rallying around in the early months of his campaign.

Tad Devine, a top Sanders campaign strategist, told Bloomberg that the progress is “tremendous.”

But Doug Usher, a managing partner at Purple Strategies, told Bloomberg that the poll numbers don’t change the strong likelihood that Clinton will ultimately win the nomination.

“Clinton remains enormously well-known and well-liked in New Hampshire, a state she won before,” Usher said.

“She benefits from a gender gap in a primary that will be disproportionately female, and even Sanders’s voters admit Clinton is likely the nominee. As long as Democrats like both candidates simultaneously, Sanders will have an uphill climb.”

New Hampshire voters give Clinton a strong edge on electability, foreign policy experience, and knowing how to get results in Washington. But Sanders leads on the perception of who is stronger on taking on Wall Street and in authenticity.

Bloomberg’s poll of 401 likely Iowa Democratic caucus-goers and 400 likely New Hampshire Democratic primary voters has a margin of error of 5 percentage points.