Sanders holds narrow lead in New Hampshire as Buttigieg surges

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders maintained a narrow edge over Pete Buttigieg in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, according to a poll released on Saturday, which showed the Democratic presidential candidates in a two-person race after their near-tie in Iowa.

The CNN/University of New Hampshire poll, which was conducted between Feb. 4-7, gave Sanders a slight lead, with 28 percent. Buttigieg trailed by 7 percentage points at 21 percent.

The two contenders are at least 10 percentage points ahead of the rest of the field, including former Vice President Joe Biden (11 percent), Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (9 percent), Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (6 percent), Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar (5 percent) and entrepreneur Andrew Yang (3 percent). Eleven percent of voters are undecided.

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Sanders, who amassed a swath of his support among voters who consider themselves liberal, with nearly half — 49 percent — backing the self-avowed democratic socialist, while just 19 percent said they planned to vote for Buttigieg. Among those who consider themselves moderate or conservative, Buttigieg was the clear victor, at 24 percent, leading Biden (15 percent) and Sanders (13 percent).

Support for Sanders, the oldest candidate in the race at 78-years-old, was largely concentrated among young voters. He won 52 percent of voters younger than 35, and about 33 percent of those between the ages of 35 and 49.

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Buttigieg’s support, however, stemmed from older voters, garnering more votes among that group than even Biden, at 27 percent to 21 percent.

New Hampshire’s primary could shed some much-needed light on the shape of the Democratic race after mass chaos during last week’s first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses. On Sunday, almost one week after the nominating contest, the Iowa Democratic Party indicated Buttigieg would capture two more state delegates than Sanders.

Still, the numbers may not be final — Sanders’ campaign has said it plans to ask the state party for a partial recanvass after previously identifying 14 precincts where there were inconsistencies or irregularities in the results. It’s unclear how many precincts they intend to contest.

Sanders carried New Hampshire in 2016 over Hillary Clinton.

The poll of 365 likely Democratic primary voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.1 percentage points.

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