Sanders seeks to build on burst of momentum in Iowa

Those findings were based on the latest CNN/WMUR New Hampshire Primary Poll, which was conducted within the last week by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. The campaign released a statement Tuesday from 10 former diplomats and national security officials who said they were concerned Sanders “has not thought through these crucial national security issues that can have profound consequences”.

Clinton attacked Sanders for his views on gun control in earlier debates; after it was revealed that he had voted for a bill exonerating owners of gun shops for selling firearms to customers that went on to commit violent acts.

The news out of New Hampshire, which holds its primary eight days later, was even better – he has led Clinton in six of the seven polls that had been taken this year.

Sanders also has a 44-point advantage among men and a 14-point advantage among women.

“The Clinton people are now facing the prospect where they could lose the first two states”, a Democratic party strategist unaffiliated with any of the presidential campaigns told Business Insider last week. Her most significant loss has been in the field of self-proclaimed liberals, who now favor Sanders over the former NY senator and secretary of state, 42 percent to 51 percent. It marks Sanders’ highest support and widest lead in any poll in any state so far.

In Iowa, Sanders has almost closed the gap entirely on Clinton’s lead, according to the most recent Des Moines Register/Bloomberg poll, which found 42% of Democratic voters in Iowa support Clinton, compared to 40% who support Sanders.

Should Mr Sanders win both states, it will be a very bruised Mrs Clinton going into the Nevada caucus and SC primary, both of which she is expected to win comfortably. The latest CNN/WMUR poll found that 70% of likely male voters in New Hampshire now support Sanders, whereas only 26% support Clinton.

Republicans are taking careful note of the new strategy and hope to use Clinton’s ties to Obama to undercut her with skeptical independents in the general election, should she win the nomination. As for Sanders, among the public overall more are favorable than are unfavorable – something that can not be said of any of the other candidates, Democrat or Republican.

The new poll shows Bernie Sanders leading with 60 percent of the vote to Clinton’s 33 in New Hampshire, seeing a huge expansion in the senator’s lead since mid-November, when the same poll tipped him to edge Clinton out by only seven percentage points.