Another poll released Tuesday from the early-voting state of South Carolina brings bad news for Bernie Sanders, with Hillary Clinton crushing the independent Vermont senator by 48 percentage points.
Conducted through phone calls to 400 likely voters from November 5 to November 8, the Monmouth University poll shows Clinton earning 69 percent support from likely Democratic primary voters in South Carolina. Sanders gets 21 percent, and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley picks up a paltry one percent.
Clinton’s lead is especially strong among African-American voters, with three out of four black South Carolinians saying she would be either “excellent” or “good” on issues related to their community. Just over half of blacks said the same about Sanders.
And Clinton’s supporters were also much more set on their choice — 43 percent of her backers said they were absolutely decided on backing her presidential campaign, while 17 percent of Sanders’s supporters said the same.
#share#It’s the second poll showing a tremendous lead for Clinton in South Carolina, the first Southern state to vote in next year’s Democratic primaries and the third overall. A Public Policy Polling survey released last week showed Clinton with an even bigger lead, giving her a 56-point advantage over Sanders among South Carolina Democrats.
The broader electoral map doesn’t look much more promising for Sanders. Though he was ahead of Clinton in New Hampshire and even with her in Iowa less than two months ago, recent polls show he’s lost his slim lead in the Granite State and fallen behind in Iowa by over 20 points.
— Brendan Bordelon is a political reporter for National Review.