Bernie Surging: New Poll Shows Sanders Ahead of Clinton in NH

Vermont Senator and presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders is surging ahead of Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, a new Franklin Pierce University/Boston Herald poll shows.

Forty-four percent of likely Democratic presidential primary voters in the state backed Sanders, while Clinton had the backing of 37 percent.

The poll (pdf), conducted August 7-10, has a 4.7 percent margin of error.

The Hill reports that the new poll is the first to show Sanders ahead of Clinton.

The results show a major surge for the Vermont senator since a Franklin Pierce/Herald poll conducted in March.  At that time, just eight percent said they would give Sanders their vote.

While Sanders' favorability rating jumped 20 points since the March poll—56 percent to 76 percent—Clinton's dropped 4 points in that time range, going from 84 percent to 80.

The poll findings come days after as National Nurses United gave its support for Sanders, with its executive director RoseAnn DeMoro citing his support for healthcare for all, work to protect Social Security and Medicare, and understanding the public health threat from climate change. His "prescriptions best represents the humanity and the values nurses embrace," DeMoro stated.

Following a weekend of record turnouts at events, Sanders told a crowd of supporters in Los Angeles Monday that his campaign's success "is because we are telling the truth. We are talking to the reality of American life today. We are talking about a reality in which almost all of the wealth and income in this country is going to the top 1 percent. We are talking about the United States having more wealth and income inequality than any other major country on earth and we are going to change that."