The surge of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) continues in earnest with new YouGov polls out Sunday showing him with double-digit leads in Iowa and New Hampshire over former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
In the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, the self-described socialist now leads by an astonishing 22 points in New Hampshire and has opened up a 10-point advantage in Iowa, where Clinton was stunned in 2008 by eventual nominee Barack Obama:
The new poll finds Sen. Sanders with 52% support among Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire, while former Secretary of State Clinton, long considered the front-runner for the 2016 Democratic nomination, receives 30%. Recent polls have shown Sanders’ lead growing in the Granite State, but this would be the first to show the Vermont Senator over 50%.
Possibly more worrying for the Clinton campaign is her performance in Iowa, where Sanders now leads by 10 points, with 43% to Clinton’s 33%.
Until recently Clinton had retained an edge in Iowa, the other first-in-the-nation voting state along with New Hampshire. A recent CNN/ORC poll found the pair tied among likely Iowa caucus voters.
CBS News election director Anthony Salvanto said on Face the Nation Sunday that Sanders was being propelled by the most liberal wings of the Democratic Party, but he also pointed to a familiar theme behind Sanders' rise: Greater enthusiasm among his supporters than among Clinton's.
In New Hampshire, 78 percent of Sanders supporters said they were enthusiastic about their choice while just 39 percent of Clinton supporters felt the same about theirs.
"Bernie Sanders voters overwhelmingly say that they are enthusiastic about voting for him, much more so than the people who are supporting Hillary Clinton, and it seems to be coming out of he's resonating with that liberal component of the Democratic base on the economic message, on the populist message, going against the rich, going against the billionaire class," Salvanto said.
In YouGov's poll of South Carolina, Clinton held a solid lead among Democrats with 46 percent to Sanders' 23 percent and Joe Biden's 22.