Hillary Clinton Losing Her National Lead Over Bernie Sanders, Poll Shows

The race for the Democratic nomination has tightened up.

ByABC News
February 5, 2016, 9:13 AM

— -- Hillary Clinton’s strong national lead over Sanders is essentially gone and, instead, the Democratic race is incredibly close, according to a national Quinnipiac poll released today.

Clinton received 44 percent of support while Sanders can boast about 42 percent, his highest support in any national poll to date.

The former secretary of state's 31 point lead over the Vermont senator in December has been fallen to only 2 points.

This new poll was conducted after the Iowa caucuses, when the polls were too close to call Monday night but, finally, Clinton eked out a win over Sanders.

The last Quinnipiac poll released Dec. 21 showed Clinton with a whopping 31 point lead over Sanders, 61 to 30.

For the Republicans, despite losing the Iowa caucuses, Trump still holds his lead over the rest of the pack nationally with 31 percent.

After that, Cruz has 22 percent, while Rubio earned 19 percent. Carson trails with 6 percent and the rest of the field, including Bush, falls at 3 percent or lower.

The poll also shows that if the general election came down to Clinton and Marco Rubio, voters said they would vote for Rubio over Clinton, 48 to 41 percent.

Both Clinton and Sanders would beat Donald Trump, according to the poll. Clinton beats Trump, 46 to 41 percent. But in a Sanders-Trump matchup, Sanders tops Trump, 49 to 39 percent.