Poll: Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders by 41 points in Iowa
A new poll out Tuesday shows Hillary Clinton 41 points ahead of Bernie Sanders in Iowa, the largest lead for Clinton in the state since August.
According to a new Monmouth University Poll, Clinton earns 65 percent of the vote from likely Democratic caucus-goers to Sanders' 24 percent. Martin O'Malley gets 5 percent and Larry Lessig, who is not often included in early state polls, gets 1 percent.
"We now have a two-person race, but one of those competitors has just pulled very far ahead," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, in the poll's release.
The poll conducted between October 22 and 24, is the first poll that captures Democratic caucus-goers' opinions after Clinton's appearance before the Select House Committee on Benghazi last week. The marathon day of testimony, which lasted 11 hours, was largely seen as a victory for Clinton over a committee divided on party lines and mired with controversy.
Her performance on Capitol Hill, along with a commanding presence on the debate stage the week before, had Clinton and her supporters on a high as she headed to Iowa over the weekend for the state party's annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.
"I think the next time she'll be up on the Hill will be in January 2017," said Robert Carpenter, a retired computer specialist from Alexandria, Va. who attended a Clinton rally there on the day after her testimony.
The Monmouth poll is also one of the first polls that does not include Vice President Joe Biden, who announced last week that he would not be seeking the Democratic nomination. Earlier polls had shown that Biden pulled support away from Clinton, and this new poll supports that.