Hillary Clinton’s lead against Bernie Sanders has narrowed among likely Democratic voters in California, with 45 percent now backing Clinton and 37 percent supporting Sanders, according to an influential poll released Monday.
The 8-percentage point lead found by the USC Dornsife/LA Times poll is half what Clinton enjoyed in September, when the same poll showed her ahead by 42 percent to 26 percent for Sanders.
In the latest poll, 51 percent of Sanders’ supporters say they expect Clinton will ultimately prevail in November. Seventy-seven percent of them say they would vote for Clinton in a general election match-up against Donald Trump, though nearly half — 45 percent — would do so reluctantly, and 15 percent would refuse to vote for her at all.
“Hillary Clinton’s biggest challenge won’t be persuading Sanders supporters to support her in the general election, but to motivate them to turn out for her,” said Dan Schnur, director of USC’s Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics. “She doesn’t have to get them to fall in love with her, but to make them fear the prospect of a Trump candidacy enough to vote.”
Clinton has an advantage among Latino voters in California, with 52 percent of Democratic Latino voters saying they would vote for her, compared with 37 percent for Sanders. However, Sanders maintains a strong following of young voters, with 71 percent of those aged 18-29 stating their support for him in the primary.
While the former Secretary of State holds the lead among registered Democrats, with 49 percent of their support, the Vermont Senator draws much of his support – 44 percent – from voters with no party preference.
Poll results released Sunday show Trump’s lead in California narrowing as well, with the billionaire developer essentially tied with Sen. Ted Cruz among likely Republican primary voters.
The latest USC poll, the largest statewide survey of registered voters, was conducted March 16-23 among 1,500 voters. Results have a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.
