Dead heat: Hillary Clinton holds razor-thin edge over Bernie Sanders in California
A pair of polls show the race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tightening for the June 7 California Democratic presidential primary. Clinton, the likely nominee, holds a razor-thin edge over the insurgent Vermont senator.
According to the latest Field Poll, released Thursday, 45 percent of likely Democratic voters support Clinton, compared to 43 percent for Sanders — a 2-point differential that is well within the survey’s margin of error. The same poll found Clinton with a 6-point lead over Sanders in April and an 11-point advantage in January.
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Wednesday night also showed Clinton with a 2-point lead over Sanders (49 percent to 47 percent) — again, well within the survey’s sampling error. (The RealClearPolitics poll average, which includes the Field Poll, NBC/WSJ and others, gives Clinton a 6-point lead over Sanders in the Golden State.)
Sanders has been barnstorming across California in hopes of winning the primary and, his team argues, momentum to help win over so-called superdelegates who have already vowed to back Clinton. Because pledged delegates are awarded proportionally, a narrow Sanders win in California would do little to help him catch up to Clinton, who also holds a decisive lead in pledged delegates.
“California is the big enchilada,” Sanders said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press.” “Obviously, if we don’t do well in California, it will make our path much, much harder.”
He added: “I’m knocking my brains out to win the Democratic nomination.”
While most political observers say that’s nearly impossible, a win by Sanders in California would put a symbolic exclamation point on the self-described democratic socialist’s “political revolution” — and give him even more leverage in pushing his progressive agenda at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
In recent weeks, Clinton has largely shifted her gaze to November and her would-be opponent, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. But she’s changed tactics as the race appears to be tightening in California.
She and former President Bill Clinton plan to hold more than 30 campaign events in California over the next five days, including what is being billed as a major foreign policy speech in San Diego on Thursday afternoon.
But even there, Clinton is expected to look past Sanders and focus on denouncing Trump’s foreign policy ideas, bluntly declaring the business mogul “simply unfit” to lead the country in a dangerous world.
“She will call Donald Trump out by name” and offer “a systematic and comprehensive critique of the alarming and bankrupt foreign policy ideas that Donald Trump has put forward,” senior Clinton foreign policy aide Jake Sullivan told Yahoo News on Wednesday. “She will not be pulling any punches.”
Clinton will not, however, make a point-by-point defense of her handling of world affairs as secretary of state or present specific policy ideas, Sullivan said.
Trump, who is also in California, launched a preemptive attack on Clinton at a Wednesday night rally in Sacramento.
“Hillary is not a talented person,” he said. “In fact, she’s a person with absolutely no natural talent.”
Trump mimicked Sanders’ criticism of Clinton, saying she is “unqualified” to be president.
“She’s one of the worst secretaries of state in the history of our country,” Trump said, mocking Clinton’s 2008 campaign commercial that touted her ability to take the “3 a.m. phone call.”
“She ends up with Benghazi. Remember the famous phone call?” Trump said. “Guess what: She was sleeping. She was sleeping like a baby.”
