Bernie Sanders Leads in Latest California Primary Poll

This race is coming down to the wire, at least in California, where the latest poll gives Sanders a 1 point edge among Democratic primary voters. The race has been tightening significantly in recent weeks, now it’s clearly a toss-up heading into Tuesday.

Report from the LA Times:

Hillary Clinton’s popularity has slumped in California under an unrelenting challenge from Bernie Sanders, who has succeeded in breaching the demographic wall Clinton had counted on to protect her in the state’s presidential primary, a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll has found.

As he has done across the country this primary season, Sanders commands the support of younger voters by huge margins in advance of Tuesday’s primary — even among Latinos and Asians, voter groups that Clinton easily won when she ran eight years ago. Many of his backers come from a large pool of voters who have registered for the first time in the weeks before the election.

Yet, Tuesday’s outcome remains difficult to predict, precisely because of the untested nature of Sanders’ following. That portends an intense fight in the final days of the campaign.

The Vermont senator has battled Clinton to a draw among all voters eligible for the Democratic primary, with 44% siding with him to 43% for Clinton. That represented a nine-point swing from a USC/Los Angeles Times poll in March, in which Clinton led handily.

A nine-point swing from March, when Hillary was leading all California polls handily. I’m not sure what to make to the fact that this primary is still contested. What particular issues are still holding reluctant Democrats back from embracing Hillary as the nominee? Is it her email scandal, general distrust, or is this solely about the issues and finding a candidate that will push progressive ideals?

California is going to be a nail-biter on Tuesday night, and it will probably be into the early morning hours on Wednesday before we might know who comes out victorious.


Nate Ashworth

The Founder and Editor-In-Chief of Election Central. He's been blogging elections and politics for over a decade. He started covering the 2008 Presidential Election which turned into a full-time political blog in 2012 and 2016 that continues today.

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